Side Gigs For Nurses + Can You Work While In CRNA School? With Patrick From Nurse Wallet

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Many nurses are looking for a side hustle these days, whether it’s to increase their income or simply to put their skills to good use beyond the bedside.  The great news is that there are a lot of side gigs for nurses that aren’t talked about very much. Today, Patrick from Nurse Wallet joins Jenny Finnell to share how they are helping nurses create more fulfilling careers by taking their expertise beyond the four walls of the hospital. Plus, they discuss the burning question of whether you can take up side gigs (and how much) while in CRNA school. Tune in for more!

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Side Gigs For Nurses + Can You Work While In CRNA School? With Patrick From Nurse Wallet

We have a very special guest, Patrick, here who is the Founder of NurseWallet and we’re going to bring a very special topic to you folks, which is side gigs. I have had many of you ask me, “What can I do during CRNA school? How can I earn some extra cash on the side?” This episode is for you if you’re wondering what you can do. Maybe you’re even saving for CRNA school and you want something you can do on addition to working bedside. This an episode you do not want to miss. Stay tuned.

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Did you want to start with talking about a high level on side gigs and nursing?

Most nurses could probably agree that they’re all looking for something. Maybe it’s not even because they necessarily want additional income. Maybe they want something more flexible. Something that can allow them to work more from home. I know that’s how I got my first taste of doing side gigs. I was a CRNA making good money, but I had a young family. I desired to work less at the hospital and more from home.

I’m not alone in that. I think 85% of nurses are females, so we all experience this mom or parent guilt that we go through when we’re spending a lot of our time out of the home. Also, nurses, especially where we’re at in our economy, need to make more money. Things are getting more expensive. Nurses are at that cusp of “We make enough, but we don’t make enough to allow a lot of extras in our lives”. We’re all looking for ways. If we want to spend an extra $500 on something big for the family or take a trip, we’re usually hustling to make that extra money to give us that flexibility in our income.

You touched on a couple of things that are super important that we often see with our nurses. For quick context, what we do at NurseWallet is we help a community of over 50,000 nurses manage their finances and careers. Everything from understanding exactly how much money you’re going to take home then planning for your financial future and how you can make your career, including side gigs, match your financial goals. From the nurses that we’ve seen that have had successful side gig journeys, a lot of it starts with, “what are my goals?”.

You just mentioned a couple, we have a big family trip coming up or I want to pay for a sports camp for one of my kids coming up or maybe I need some more flexibility. The real key is precisely defining that goal, which can be scary for some. Most people, nurse or not, don’t feel like they ever have “enough money.” The key is, where am I trying to go? Backing into, where do I stand now? That is challenging specifically for nurses if you’re working a variable schedule or working across multiple different types of gigs. Those two things together are the key step towards picking out what is the right side gig for you.

Having in mind what do you want to make, what’s your target goal as far as what you want to make from the side gig? Another thing I hear all the time, even as a CRNA, is that when you pick up over time, they’re like, “You should see how much they take out in taxes.” It’s like the sucker punch, like, “I worked hard and it’s a stressful environment. I went into work an extra 12 or 24 hours in a week.” You feel like half of it is gone when you get your actual paycheck. I love that NurseWallet helps nurses understand what that’s going to look like prior to even going down that path. It allows you to help budget for what you couldn’t take home.

What’s frustrating for a lot of folks is, as you make more, the marginal taxes that you get on each additional dollar are higher. One of the scripts that we hear all the time that isn’t true is, “If I work more, I’ll make less money.” It’s only those additional dollars over each tax threshold that are getting taxed more. Certainly, taxes are very real. It’s super frustrating as you make more, you’re not feeling you get the full result, but it is always worth it. It’s maybe not worth it for your personal situation, but you are going to take home more money.

I feel like that was one of the disappointing things we learned when designing this product for nurses. Especially for nurses who are getting paid weekly. Sometimes, a little bit over time, that given week is going to be taxed at a rate that’s going to make you feel like, “Was this even worth it?” I totally hear you on that.

Remote Nursing as a Side Gig for Nurses

It’s a lot of it expectations and understanding, as you said, what is being taxed. I would love to explore the different roles that you see nurses perform for side gigs. Let’s talk about remote nursing because that’s a hot topic.

One of the things we’ve seen, especially for nurses with higher degrees of credentialing, is telehealth and remote consulting for either different companies or even on a clinical side. Sometimes, we help some of our nurses get roles for companies where they might not even be seeing a patient on that given Zoom call they’re on, but they’re providing consulting-like services given their specific expertise in that area. That’s one that we’ve seen be successful.

The other ones are just leveraging your experience in the nursing profession more broadly. We see a lot of nurses have success with writing or even providing writing feedback to companies like NurseWallet who are looking to reach a nursing audience, similar to content creation or content feedback. I know a lot of pushback you get is sometimes like, “I’m not an influencer. I’m not trying to be in front of the camera.” Neither am I. This show being the exception.

I don’t like to do a ton of that, but there is a huge opportunity for nurses to participate in a lot of the emerging healthcare technology ecosystem. For a long time, nurses, unfortunately, have not had a seat at the table. Finally, you’re starting to see some companies at least try to take steps in that direction. There’s a growing appetite for nurses to be able to lend their expertise that way.

I have seen that too in my, I would call it very relatively short period of time, putting myself front and center in the business world of things. I lived under a rock for a very long time, where I was like, “My community is my community. I don’t need to explore elsewhere.” Back when I launched TeachRN, I finally was like, “Jenny, I have to start networking outside of my comfort zone.” It opened my eyes to “people want your insights”.

I’ve been told numerous times that you just have the insights, and you don’t even realize you have these insights because it’s common sense to you. You think everyone should know these things, but nurses undervalue what they know to be true because they worked at bedside. You do have a lot of value in consulting for different businesses that want a perspective from a bedside nurse. These are opportunities that you can seek out. LinkedIn, by far, is one of the best ways to find these opportunities. There are job boards and things of that nature that are remote, but I think you can find a lot of opportunities directly straight from LinkedIn. I know you folks said you helped with that area as well.

On LinkedIn specifically, one of the ways that NurseWallet has found a lot of folks that we have provided part-time work to on a remote basis is nurses who put themselves out there. To your point, a lot of folks underappreciate how helpful they could be to certain businesses. Maybe it hasn’t happened over a few times, but we found that it has led to a lot of great partnerships.

I would love to hear some success stories that stick with you from the NurseWallet community as far as what you have seen resonate the most. I know we talked a little bit about remote nursing, but are there any other types of side gigs that your community does that you feel are successful?

I touched on it briefly, but one of them is in nurse writing, which can be very broad. Sometimes, that originally meant actual medical writing. We’ve hired a few nurses who have been able to make a few extra thousand dollars per month in providing writing services originally just for us but then by getting their name out there now for several others.

These were bedside nurses who didn’t have a degree in Journalism or anything like that but were more so writing about their experience as a nurse in a specific field or their experience navigating life as a night shift nurse. We’ve hired a new grad nurse who documented her journey through finishing clinicals, taking that first role at the bedside, and providing that advice and almost mentorship at scale. She wasn’t mentoring an individual nurse, but you’re super passionate about it. It’s the holy grail of that.

Even just providing some of that experience on a platform, there are ways to monetize that as a side gig. You’re even more comfortable. Another thing that we’ve seen a ton of success with is lightweight video creation. Not necessarily creating advertising materials for a specific brand but putting your story out there. There are companies out there that will want a nurse’s perspective and either will pay you to advertise their product or for that content of understanding the nurse’s journey.

The third, which we touched on briefly, is brand consulting for companies that are interested in the nursing space. For example, take a company maybe like NurseWallet that is providing nurse financial advice. We do have a head nurse. We have several nurses on the staff, but personally, I’m not a nurse by trade. It’s helpful sometimes. We will pay nurses to help design a new feature we’re building or provide feedback. We’ve had a lot of success in getting new nurses to do that on a part-time basis. I know lots of other technology companies in the space are looking for that as well.

TeachRN

That’s a great opportunity. It’s something that nurses don’t think about, but we can lead the way in developing technology that’s going to help us particularly. We’re so used to having technology made for us, but not by us. This is a great shift in that culture where, as you said, nurses now have a seat at the table to have a say in the design and this feature, which greatly impacts care because we are the end user. We are the ones who are at the bedside doing the care. If we’re involved in the development of our portals that we’re using or the tools that we’re using at bedside, it’s only going to make us more effective and more efficient at what we intend to do, which is patient care. That’s wonderful.

Folks, keep your nose out for things like this. I’m going to give myself a plug here that I felt passionate about. I’ll give some backstory as far as why I developed TeachRN, why it’s so meaningful and why that nurses are uniquely suited to do this type of a side gig. I’ve been mentoring for a few years now. CRNA School Prep Academy has mentored over 6,000 nurses pursuing CRNA.

Prior to this adventure that I’ve been on, I wanted to help because people were reaching out to me saying, “Jenny, I’m struggling or I’m not getting interviews. I’m being rejected and I don’t understand why. So-and-so had less credentials than me and I still got rejected.” A lot of times, these faculty or these programs, the CRNA programs, do not have the bandwidth to give personalized feedback to hundreds of applicants. They simply say, “It was a competitive application cycle. Try again next year.” That doesn’t give them any direction on how to move forward.

I started helping and through that experience, I realized, “This is a much bigger need than I ever imagined.” We’re not unique, meaning we are a very small niche community of pre-CRNA hopefuls and there are about 55,000 CRNAs in the world, mostly in the United States or our VA hospitals. That being said, I know we’re not unique. I know there are other nurses who are looking for career guidance.

One of the things that I started noticing within our own community is the students who were receiving the mentorship and who were getting the good results came back to me and say, “Jenny, how can I give back? This has been so impactful for me. I want to help too.” I’m like, “There’s something to this,” because it creates a circle system of gratitude where it’s like holding the door for someone. They’re more likely to hold the door for the next person coming behind them.

I’m like, “What if we did this on a big scale where nurses help nurses? Nurses were mentoring other nurses for career advancement opportunities. Nurses should be the ones paying other nurses to do this work because we’re doing meaningful work.” TeachRN is about that. It’s about rewarding a nurse who is willing to put their time and effort into helping another fellow nurse.

In TeachRN, we have about 113 active mentors, over 265 services. We’ve paid out over about $110,000 to nurse mentors at this point. It’s a great way, again, to earn additional income by doing something you already enjoy doing, helping other people. Helping nurses nonetheless. You do things like essay edits, resume edits, mock interviews, consulting, and things of that nature. You can book your time that way.

It’s a nice way for nurses to connect with other nurses. What makes this unique is there are platforms like Wisnet and HeyTutor and things like that. It’s a catch-all, meaning it’s everything and everybody who comes to these sites where we want to focus on nurses. TeachRN’s focus is how we can help nurses, how can we help them orient to being new to the ICU and how we can help them make career changes.

What if you want to go back to school and you’re not sure if it’s the right choice? Before you spend all this time and money investing in a graduate degree, maybe you should seek some mentorship first to make sure it’s the right career fit. Ultimately, our goal and our mission is to make sure nurses are more fulfilled and more satisfied in their careers through peer-to-peer guidance and support.

One of the things that has me so excited about TeachRN is that a lot of the nurses that we see on the Nurse Wallet platform may want to make a career change or want to up-level their take-home earnings beyond taking a few overtime shifts or maybe a small side gig. Is that the right career pivot for me or the right next step? Whether going back to school, taking per diem shifts on a per diem platform, or switching units.

It’s hard sometimes to get that support within your own work environment because there’s so much inherent bias, and we may be working on a unit with the other people who aren’t making that move. Going somewhere objective in third party to get still that nurse support is fantastic and I’m excited to see what you guys built.

Thank you. I also have noticed, too, and I notice this quite often, that maybe a nurse wants to ask a question. She’s new to a unit, but she’s scared and intimidated. Maybe she doesn’t want to feel like her co-workers think she’s stupid or not worthy. There is this idea of, “I have to be perfect,” which is unfortunate. It’s cultural thing that we’ve done ourselves, but nurses don’t have anyone to turn to because they’re too embarrassed or shy to reach out to their actual co-workers.

By going to a site like TeachRN, you can find another CVICU nurse you don’t know you will never work with because they live across the country. You can receive this mentorship that’s tailored to what you’re struggling with. There’s something key about that as well, allowing this safe haven for nurses to feel like, “I can be who I am. I don’t feel like I have to be judged here at work. I can go home and talk about a difficult situation and work through that emotional baggage that I’m carrying without having my co-workers have to know about it.”

That’s key as well. That’s a very needed aspect of what TeachRN is out to achieve. I appreciate your support of our mission. For those of you reading, I highly encourage you to go consider TeachRN as a side gig. To wrap this up, I would love to get into what are some things that nurses should think about as far as balancing their side gigs and their home lives. Most women wear a million hats and guys wear a million hats, too. Sometimes you try to do so much and end up being hollow or empty because you’re always pouring into someone else, but you’re not pouring into yourself.

Time Management Tips

The most successful nurses we’ve seen have balanced side gigs, even if they’re multiple clinical side gigs where you’re working at one facility, then you’re working with a per diem platform somewhere else or you’re picking up shifts at a med spa or giving IV therapy on the road. There are lots of great options for side gigs that are still in the clinical realm, but the nurses we’ve seen be the most successful are the ones who do a good job of managing their schedules.

Side Gigs For Nurses: The nurses who are the most successful are the ones who do a good job of managing their schedule.

Nurses know this, but based on when you’re working, that’s how you’re getting paid. Holding tight guidelines before you get into that commitment or the additional work that you’re going to take is crucial. You mentioned managing multiple hats. Let’s say you have a family obligation every Saturday morning. Holding tight to that, then knowing, “Maybe I don’t want to be doing things on Friday night as well,” and creating those strict boundaries for yourself is helpful.

One of the things that we do and some of the courses that we’ll teach to our nurses around financial support is about creating clear constraints for yourself. Outside of those, you can spend or do whatever it is you need to do guilt-free. Whether that’s not work, guilt-free, or spend on the things you need to. If you take care of the big boulders up front of what they’re going to be, those key foundational pillars for your financial life, that lets you not worry about some of the small things, then you’re not getting overburdened with, “I’m tired. I want to go get an extra $5 coffee at Starbucks.” You’re then not having that one-off small straw that broke the camel’s back on something small because you’re taking care of the foundational pieces first.

Something you mentioned around being able to get that advice from your co-workers on trying to be perfect on the unit. We also see that financially all the time, which is part of the mission of our company. When you’re surrounded by a bunch of folks who may also be struggling with their finances or have a similar background, it’s hard to know that there is another path outside of it. We always encourage nurses like, “If you go and start the side gig or whatever it is, you’re going to make more money right away.” For sure, there’ll be more coming in.

If you don’t have the holes plugged in the right foundation, the house will still crumble eventually. Getting some of those foundational things built and would love to help with the NurseWallet. Download the app and feel free to reach out to me. We also do some courses. We think that foundation is the key to the balance.

I love that and equally relate to all your extra time working for side gigs to, at the end of the day, not have any additional money, to still feel broke. I do think some checks and balances, what are you spending your money on? Get clear on that. It sounds like NurseWallet helps nurses itemize that type of spending and get a clear grasp of what you want to accomplish by working extra.

Working Side Gigs While in CRNA School

For people who are CRNA path, people who are getting ready to not work for almost three years and take on loads of debt. Trust me, that’s like sets and panic just even saying those words. One thing that I always stress too is making sure that you got your credit cards paid off. Taking care of the debt that is not forgiving debt is key. Make sure that you have a good credit in case you had to take out a loan of some kind. Having a backup plan in place, but being realistic with your time and what the expectations are.

It’s not realistic to think that you can work 20 or 30 hours of side gigs in CRNA school. It’s not, but if you worked eight hours a month. What could that do? What would you allocate those funds to? If that was $300 or $400, what would that go towards? Equally, knowing your budget saying, “I might have to cut back on X, Y, and Z because these are my needs. These are my wants.” It’s okay to splurge every now and then on a want, but maybe you should anticipate how frequently that can be based on what side gig you know you can maintain.

Side Gigs For Nurses: It’s not realistic to think that in CRNA school that you can work 20-30 hours of side gigs.

I know, for me, I worked about eight hours a week for the first 3 to 4 months of the program, then I was like, “No, this is not worth risking getting a bad grade. Not worth risking my own happiness.” I bit the bull, stopped working, and just lived. Luckily, I had my husband who supported me. His income helped. Not everyone has that. Some people are on their own. I love the fact that we’re at least sharing options out there for people reading.

It is a real need that nurses need to find ways to make extra income. Maybe this is off subject. I don’t think so. I saw this reel that was awesome. There was this professor who filled a jar full of golf balls then he asked everyone if it’s full. They’re like, “It’s full.” He started filling it with like little, I don’t know if they were like chocolate chunks. I’m not sure, but they were like little pieces of something else, and then he’s like, “Now, is it full?” They’re like, “Now it’s full.” He took sand and he poured sand into the jar, and then it was full.

In fact, you probably would have gone one step further and put water in it, but that’s what I thought when I was watching it. The takeaway was the golf balls are the important things in your life that you have to set priorities around. There are things like the chocolate and your work-life balance, and you do it to add fulfillment in your life. The sand’s everything else, the small things. You want to make sure you’re taking care of the golf balls first. Otherwise, if you put the sand in first, the little things, you wouldn’t have room for the golf balls.

The big takeaway was to know what your priorities are, set your boundaries. It’s okay to say no. One of the things I had to come to terms with because I’m a people pleaser- I know that about myself. I don’t like saying no to people. One of the things that helped me the most when it comes to setting boundaries was when I say yes to someone, whatever It may be. When I say yes, I equally am saying no to something else.

What am I saying no to when I say yes and when I frame my questions like that in my brain? It makes it much easier to say no because I always take the mindset to “no” doesn’t mean never. A lot of times a “no” just means not yet. There’s always an opportunity down the road to do something that you want to do but maybe it’s not the right timing. I wanted to leave you guys with that advice as well. Thank you for sharing. I would love you guys to check out NurseWallet. It sounds like a great tool for the pre-CRNA. If you’re with NurseWallet and you’re reading this episode, I encourage you to check out TeachRN as a great avenue to earn some side income and give back to the nursing community.

The last thing I’ll throw in is that we find a lot of options, but everybody’s situation is personal. Wherever there’s an opportunity for us to help financially outside of that, please reach out to us directly. Happy to find a personalized solution that works for you.

Jenny, thank you so much for taking the chance to chat and super excited for what TeachRN has next.

Thank you. Likewise and it’s my pleasure.

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