Best Work-at-Home Jobs for Nurses

When I decided to sign up for nursing school, I knew that I wanted to work in a clinical environment. But after working a grueling year in a pediatric unit at a hospital, I started to look for other opportunities. As I began my search for something non-clinical, I was amazed at the host of possibilities available to nurses.

Over the years, I've worked in a wide variety of nursing jobs from prior authorization and medical record review to clinical research; in fact, that's one of the great things about nursing, its versatility.

Oh, and let's not forget the high demand for nurses!

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for registered nurses is expected to grow 15 percent between 2016 and 2026, which is a faster-than-average growth rate for a job in the United States.

If you're looking to leave the clinical environment and ditch the commute, here are some of the best work-at-home jobs for nurses!

If You Have an Advanced Nursing Degree:

1. Online Nursing Faculty

If you have an MSN or a Ph.D. in nursing — you can teach online nursing classes to college students. To teach BSN coursework, you must have an MSN degree, and to teach MSN nursing classes you have must a Ph.D.

Here are some of the companies that hire online nursing instructors:

• Excelsior College
• Kaplan
• Pearson
• Western Governors University
• Steward Health Care System
• Strayer University

2. Nursing Evaluator

If you have an MSN degree, you can grade nursing students' academic submissions. Western Governors University hires for this position.

If You Have You Have an RN License:

3. Telephonic Case Manager

Case Management is probably the most well known work-at-home nursing jobs. As a Case Manager, you'll oversee your patients care plan making sure that they receive the appropriate care, resources, and referrals so that they have can a successful outcome.

These employers hire remote case managers:

• AMC Health
• Cigna
• Conduent
• Humana
• DaVita
• Aetna
• CVS Health
• Wellbox

4. Remote Diabetic Educator

These positions usually require a Bachelor's Degree along with an RN or an RD (Registered Dietitian) license. As a Diabetic Educator, you'll work with diabetics to ensure proper disease understanding, knowledge, and diabetic care, routine, and resources.

Here are a couple of companies that hire telephonic diabetic educators:

• Aetna
• Livongo

5. Freelance Nursing Writers

Nursing writers write content for test prep courses, instructional manuals, and other training materials. If you're interested in this sort of work, other terms to search for are Nurse Certification Writers, Nurse Research Writers, Learning Development Writers, and Medical Writers. GEISWriters.com hires for this online nursing job.

Related Content: From Nursing to Freelance Writing – One Mom’s Path to Working From Home

6. Telehealth Triage Registered Nurse

In this role, the nurse performs screening calls to determine the appropriate path of care for patients. Sometimes called, Care Advisor RNs.

These employers hire telehealth nurses:

• Edward Elmhurst Health
• Medtronic
• HealthPartners
• Carenet Healthcare Services
• RelateCare
• Sequence Health
• U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs

7. RN Insurance Jobs

In this role, you will review medical records to make sure that the code billed was the appropriate code for the services rendered. These positions do require some technical writing skills, as you will contact providers for additional information and denial of payment notices. Other keywords to search for if you're interested in this position are, Concurrent Review RN, Clinical Appeals Nurse, RN Appeal Writer, Review Nurse, and Surveillance and Utilization Review (SURS) Nurse.

Here are some companies that hire for this online nursing position:

• UnitedHealth Group
• Ensemble
• CareCentrix
• HMS Healthcare
• Anthem, Inc.
• Parallon

8. Virtual Clinical Research Associate (CRA)

Clinical Research Associates oversee all aspects of pharmaceutical research studies, from recruiting and monitoring to budgeting and reporting. These positions require a Bachelor's degree, an RN nursing degree, or experience as a Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC). From my experience, the majority of these positions are home-based, but they do require some travel.

These employers hire home-based CRAs:

• PPD
• Covance
• Premier Research

If You Have an RN, LPN or LVN:

9. Remote Quality Improvement Nurse

As a Quality Improvement Nurse, you will review hospitals' nursing record documentation for completeness, accuracy, and appropriate level coding. These positions usually contain a teaching element, where the nurse educates the staff on the importance of proper documentation and coding practices. Usually requires a fair amount of travel; on some job postings, it's 70 to 80 percent travel time. If you're interested in applying for this position, also search the keywords Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist, Data Abstractor, and Nurse Consultant.

Check out these companies for this type of online nursing job:

• Excite Health Partners
• HMS Healthcare
• Anthem, Inc.
• UnitedHealth Group
• Molina Healthcare

10. Remote Teacher Assistant – LPN or LVN

Teacher Assistants help the instructor with a wide variety of tasks, like assisting with assignments, tutoring, and classroom support. Achieve Test Prep hires for this work from home nursing job.

Spin Your Nursing Knowledge Into a New Career:

11. Virtual Healthcare Recruiter

In this position, you'll search for and screen candidates for various healthcare positions. Most of these positions require a Bachelor's Degree with a healthcare background. Also, search for the keyword, Nurse Recruiter or RN Recruiter.

Here are some companies that hire work-at-home healthcare recruiters:

• HCA
• LHC Group
• Lord Global Services
• TalentRISE

12. Clinical Sales Specialist

As a sales representative, you will work with doctors, nurses, case managers, and other healthcare professionals in clinical settings to educate them on healthcare products, services, medications, and programs. Most sales positions offer a base salary with commission on sales or sign-ups. The majority of sales positions require overnight travel, usually about 50 percent of the time, the other portion you will work from home. Other terms to search for are Healthcare Sales Rep, Clinical Marketing Manager, and Clinical Sales Representative. CVS hires Clinical Sales Reps.

13. Become a Legal Nurse Consultant

First, Legal Nurse Consultants work on their own as independent contractors; they are not employees. Second, you will need additional training for this position, and the one I'm most familiar with is Vickie Milazzo's (because I have received her brochures in the mail). Even if you don't take her training, her website has a lot of great information on how to get clients, how much you can earn, as well as success stories. If you're interested in this career, also check out Alice Adam's story — it has lots of useful information about the industry.

Alternative Jobs for Nurses: 

14. Nurse Turned Entrepreneur

You can also take your nursing knowledge and spin it into a whole new career, by starting a business. In fact, that's just what Elizabeth Irvine did. Once a pediatric nurse, Elizabeth now runs a business where she educates and empowers women through serenity jewelry, inspirational books, and soul-full workshops and retreats. You can check out her story here.

15. Nurse Turned Blogger

If you'd had told me, I would be running a blogging business from home; I would have said you're crazy! But here I am. After unhappily working in the nursing field for five years, I decided to become a full-time stay-at-home mom, which launched my search for online jobs, and subsequent action of starting this blog. I've been running a blogging business for ten years now, and I couldn't be happier.

If you're curious about my blogging journey, you can read it here.

And if you'd like to start your own blog from home, I have a step-by-step tutorial here to get you started.

16. Nurse Turned Coder

Like a lot of nurses, Nadia Copeland loved her job and the people she worked with, but she was tired of how budget concerns affected patient care, and her health was suffering due to the overall stress of her job. After quitting her nursing job, Nadia looked into LaunchCode’s CoderGirl Program at the urging of her husband. Not only was Nadia good at coding, but she enjoyed the challenge. Nadia says, “I’m grateful for what nursing taught me, but I’m so much happier in my current role and industry, and I’m looking forward to becoming as seasoned in computer programming as I was at providing health care.”

Still Not Finding Your Dream At-Home Nursing Job?

FlexJobs is my favorite place to search for work-at-home jobs because they let you refine your search by job type, schedule, job category, telecommuting level, company accolades, career level, and title. Being able to break down your job search into these specific categories will help you find what you're looking for faster. Plus, all their job postings are hand-screened for legitimacy, so you don't have to worry about dealing with scams.

Another great place to find remote nursing jobs is in the Facebook group, Remote Nursing Jobs. Sadie the founder of the group, is a nurse that works from home and who has a knack for finding these jobs. New job leads and information are posted daily.

Have you brought your nursing job home? We'd love to hear about it, or if you've spun off into a new career, we'd love to hear about that too!

You’ll Also Love These Posts:

Studies have shown if you like this blog post — you will also love the following articles. I handpicked them just for you!

• Why This Nurse Made the Switch to Medical Coding and Billing
• How I Was Able to Hang Up My Nursing Stethoscope and Become a Work-at-Home Mom
• Where to Find Work From Home Medical Insurance Jobs

Originally published December 2, 2016. Content updated March 5, 2019.

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