Help from home: 5 nursing jobs that are perfect for remote work

Shift work may be synonymous with nursing, but it doesn’t have to define your career as a nurse. Nurses have long been expected to log ridiculous hours far more extreme than the traditional 9-to-5 work schedule the rest of us enjoy day in and day out, but nowadays there are a number of exciting new opportunities available to nurses offering far more flexible working arrangements that just weren’t an option years ago. 

The best part? These new job options don’t even require you to leave the living room! Only you can decide if remote nursing is right for you and your personal career goals, but it’s hard to overstate just how much of a game changer remote work can be for the average nurse. 

After all, there’s no closing time at hospitals and ERs, and patients often require 24-hour observation and care. That means habitual overtime and 12-hour shifts are just another part of the gig for nurses all over the country. Research conducted by New York University just months before the COVID-19 pandemic even found that shift work can take a toll on nurses before they ever clock in. Nurses were sleeping close to an hour and a half less on nights before a shift compared to days off, and that lack of sleep was even associated with a dropoff in patient safety and quality of care provided.

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic understandably made matters worse for understaffed and overworked nursing teams. One survey put together in late 2022 even reports half of polled nurses recently considered leaving the nursing profession altogether, with 56% citing concerns over their own mental health and burnout as the main motivator and another 58% listing the desire for a better work/life balance.

When set against the backdrop of such statistics, the recent rise of remote nursing opportunities makes complete sense. There’s no better place to find a more harmonious work-life balance than home. Moreover, besides traditional patient care, working from home as a nurse can open doors to different jobs across a surprisingly diverse array of industries. Let’s take a look at five nursing jobs that are perfect for remote work.

Remote Triage Nurse

A remote triage nurse serves as the first point of contact during e-visits, usually over video chat or telephone, and helps patients identify the best course of treatment for their medical issue or condition. In other words, is it an emergency or a false alarm? This type of position is best suited for RNs with at least some clinical experience, as most remote triage nurses are expected to perform preliminary consultations with patients and report their assessments back to primary providers. 

Remote Clinical Research Nurse

Helping people doesn’t necessarily have to mean patient care. Clinical research nurses put their medical expertise and scientific acumen to good use by conducting indispensable research that helps modern medicine better understand disease, aging, and the human body in general, setting the stage for the next generation of life-saving treatments, vaccines, and medications. Typical tasks a remote clinical research nurse may work on include the management of clinical trials, subject recruitment, EMR record keeping, and writing articles in medical journals. 

Remote Compliance Nurse

Remote compliance nurses work for health insurance companies or other healthcare organizations, aiming to ensure all medical safety regulations and patient care quality policies are properly followed. The job primarily entails reviewing medical record claims, so if you’re an ethical person with an eye for details (and data), this field of remote nursing may be a good fit for you. 

Remote Nurse Educator

There’s no better teacher out there for the nurses of tomorrow than, well, the nurses of today. More and more nursing courses are being offered entirely online (LPN-to-RN, ADN-to-BSN), and seasoned RNs can now find work teaching classes remotely for associates degree programs or bachelor’s degree programs. The majority of remote nursing teaching positions will require an MSN (Master of Science in Nursing).

Remote Legal Nurse Consultant 

Looking to enter a new field entirely? Your experience as a nurse may put you in high demand for a position as a remote legal nurse consultant. These nurses lend their skill sets to law firms and legal cases involving medicine or healthcare. Recognized as a speciality for decades, legal nurse consultants may be asked by an attorney or paralegal to make sense of technical medical verbiage, review medical records, speak to medical professional standards of practice, and even construct exhibits for showcase at trial.

There are plenty more remote positions out there to choose from if you’re interested in the prospect of nursing electronically from home. Check out Ladder’s job page now to start browsing high-paying work from home nursing positions.