A Guide to Starting a Successful Nursing Entrepreneurship in Africa

Nursing Entrepreneurship: The professional objectives of nurses and the public healthcare needs are quite challenging, as a result, the nursing profession has continued to evolve in order to meet these challenges. This has given birth to the business of nursing entrepreneurship, which is now a global trend as many nurses are taking the bold step of establishing their own nursing businesses within the health sector. 

The term nursing entrepreneurship may be new to some Africans as the popular thought among many nurse hopefuls is to graduate from the university or nursing schools and secure gainful employment. Whereas, there are huge entrepreneurship opportunities for nurses in the health sector in many African countries. In Canada, the Canadian Nurses Association stated that 60% of all registered nurses in 1930s were nursing entrepreneurs mostly as private duty nurses. 

Nursing entrepreneurship entails businesses that offer nursing services within the health sector in the area of direct care, health advocacy and promotion, health research, health education, consultancy, and administration. Nursing entrepreneurs are answerable only to their clients.

How to Start Nursing Business:

Acquire the Necessary Qualifications & Skills: All over the world, the health sector is highly regulated; you cannot render services as a nurse in the health sector unless you have the necessary educational qualification or professional certifications with the valid license(s) to operate. Also, entrepreneurship is not about professional competence, you must equally possess other skills in order to be successful. Therefore to become a successful nursing entrepreneur you must be:

Acquire the Necessary Qualifications & Skills: All over the world, the health sector is highly regulated; you cannot render services as a nurse in the health sector unless you have the necessary educational qualification or professional certifications with the valid license(s) to operate. Also, entrepreneurship is not about professional competence, you must equally possess other skills in order to be successful. Therefore to become a successful nursing entrepreneur you must be: 

• Registered as a practicing nurse with the regulatory agency
• Knowledgeable and have extensive experience and skills in the nursing services you intend to offer.
• Able to manage the consequences of your assessment
• Effective in communication and consultation skills
• Possess management and marketing skills
• Identify Your Prospective Clients (Target Market)

There is no business unless you are satisfying a need; you must identify those that need the kind of services you want to provide and how to reach them. As a nurse entrepreneur, most of your services are considered essential services; you should, however, make inquiries to know the types of service(s) that is of interest to your target clients. The following entities can be considered your target markets or clients:

• Government institutions
• Educational institutions
• Families
• Individuals
• Communities
• Healthcare agencies and facilities
• Church groups
• NGOs (to collaborate with)
• Private businesses

Decide on Services you want to provide in Your Nursing Business:

The business opportunities for you as a nurse entrepreneur in the health sector is enormous as a wide range of your services will be needed. This gives you the leverage to evaluate yourself to know the best service you can offer that fit the environment you operate or your target clients. These services may include:

Direct care services provider – such service as giving support to mothers who are breastfeeding babies, counseling for families and individuals, enterostomy therapy, holistic nursing, etc.

• Services in Health Promotion – like management of stress, Infection Control Nurse, etc.
• Services in organizing support for clients with protracted health problems as Advocacy Service Provider
• Continuing Education Services Provider for nurses employed in the healthcare sector
• Monitoring of quality of healthcare agencies and facilities as part of Administrative Services Provider, Independent Contractor, Freelance Medical copywriting
• Consultancy – such as Weight Loss and Nutrition Consultant, Nurse Staffing Consults, Rehabilitation Consultant, etc.

Register your Business Name:

You need to decide on the type of nursing services you intend to provide before proceeding to register the business. This is because the Corporate Affairs Commission requires that one possess relevant certifications to register a business that will offer some essential services such as nursing services. This is why you need to acquire the necessary certifications and licenses before proceeding to register your business. It will involve some cost to register the business name and to register as a Limited Liability Company.

Setup your Office:

Choose the location wisely, it is very crucial to your success in nursing business. Your office should be located where it can be easy to access. Also, the nature of the services in the nursing industry may sometimes require emergency attention; the office location should, therefore, have a good network of roads and not area that is prone to a traffic jam.

Acquire Necessary Equipment:

After you have found an office in a suitable location, you can now acquire the necessary equipment to kick-start your business (Medical equipment and office supplies). Depending on the type(s) of service(s) you intend to provide, the equipment you are likely to use should fall into any of the following categories.

The Basics Nursing Equipment:

For a nurse that provides direct care services particularly in long-term care facilities and nursing homes, the common tools, which are mostly owned personally by the nurses include:

• Stethoscope
• Hemostats
• Watch with a second hand
• Black pen
• Bandage scissors
• Penlight

Movable Diagnostic Tools:

The following are common portable assessment and diagnostic tools used by many nurses on shift. You may need to acquire them for your nursing services particularly for nursing bedside shift:

The following are common portable assessment and diagnostic tools used by many nurses on shift. You may need to acquire them for your nursing services particularly for nursing bedside shift:  

• Rolling vital sign kit
• Mobile electronic charting system
• Glucometer (Portable)
• Pulse Oximeter (Portable)
• More Complex Equipment
• Other complex equipment your nursing business may need include:
• Patient-controlled analgesia pump
• Automated IV pump
• Blood gas monitoring unit (system)

Hire Your Workers:

You can now hire the people that will work with you depending on the type(s) of Service(s) you intend to provide; you can start alone particularly private nursing services. But it is important if you have an office that you hire a receptionist that can be trained to work with you. You may need other nurses (even student nurses) to assist you, especially when the business starts expanding.

Marketing:

If you have wonderful ideas or even facilities and people don’t know that something of such exists, you may wrongly quit the business thinking you have made a wrong choice. You need to visit your target clients and tell them about your services. Starting with internet marketing is not a bad idea; you can develop a simple website that tells people about you and your services and use social media and email marketing to increase traffic to the site, which ultimately creates more awareness for your business.

Initial Capital Outlay: 

The initial cost of starting nursing entrepreneurship service is relatively in the middle ranges. Startup costs for nursing entrepreneurship are the same as any startup business in Africa. ($50,000 – 100,000).