Nursing is grounded in compassion, advocacy, and a determination to make people’s lives better. Today, that same commitment is fuelling a new and powerful movement: nurses as entrepreneurs. Whether we’re at the bedside, in community clinics, universities, boardrooms or working in digital spaces, nurses tend to notice problems early, build trust quickly and quietly fix what others overlook. Those abilities translate well into designing and leading new solutions, which are at the heart of entrepreneurship. 

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to confront inequalities that had been hiding in plain sight. People already disadvantaged by income, overcrowded housing, discrimination or insecure work were hit hardest. Data confirmed what many nurses already suspected: infection rates, hospitalisations and deaths were far higher in deprived areas, partly because people had fewer ways to protect themselves. (World Health Organization/Institute of Health Equity, 2021; Bambra et al, 2020; McGowan & Bambra, 2022). Racially minoritised communities faced even worse outcomes during the pandemic, which made it painfully clear that structural forces, not individual choices, shape health and outcomes (NHS Confederation, 2020; Sierra et al, 2023). Frontline staff saw this unfold up close, especially in workplaces already stretched thin. The pandemic did not create injustice, but it exposed it so starkly that many of us were left wondering why equity is not treated as a baseline for public health, social and economic policies. 

This is where nursing skills become entrepreneurial strengths.  

Nurses are skilled navigators of complex systems. On any given shift, they coordinate across teams, manage limited resources, balance clinical risks and make quick decisions. These are the same competencies required to test ideas, run pilot projects and lead change. Just as important is the relational side of nursing. We spend our days with people at their most vulnerable. We learn how families cope with illness, why some patients miss appointments, or how something as small as a lack of bus fare or mouldy walls can derail someone’s health. This day-to-day proximity gives nurses uncommon insight into what communities actually need. 

Nurses often see gaps in services long before they show up in reports or data dashboards. Perhaps a teenager who keeps missing asthma reviews because she is caring for younger siblings, or an older adult whose condition worsens every winter because he cannot heat his home. These moments, shared quietly during a home visit or in a hallway, often spark the best ideas, and are the seeds of culturally grounded, trauma-responsive innovations that are equity-focused. Across the UK and globally, nurses are already building community programmes, culturally specific interventions, digital tools, new continuity models and social enterprises aimed at the root causes of ill health: poverty, discrimination, access barriers and systemic bias.  

Entrepreneurship in nursing is not just about starting businesses. It’s about co-creating change with communities, listening before designing, and ensuring services honour dignity and belonging. These aims echo the NHS Long Term Plan and ongoing global calls to strengthen nursing leadership through innovation (WHO, 2021). But in practice, progress often begins with a single nurse saying, “There has to be a better way.” 

Not every nurse who innovates steps away from their organisation. Many act as ‘intrapreneurs’, reshaping services from within by developing new pathways, leading quality-improvement efforts, creating usable digital tools, supporting staff wellbeing, piloting outreach projects, embedding culturally safe practices or influencing policy and education. They may not label themselves entrepreneurs, but their impact proves otherwise. 

A new generation of nurses is asking for roles with more autonomy, creativity and purpose; roles that acknowledge both clinical expertise and social activism. Entrepreneurship offers space for that. When nurses can design services, test ideas or lead projects that match their values and the needs of their communities, it proves crucial to retaining and nurturing the next generation of nurses and nurse leaders. 

It is time for nursing and the RCN to recognise entrepreneurial practice as part of modern nursing. To any nurse reading this: your ideas matter. Whether you start a social enterprise, lead digital change, build a community project or simply redesign a process on your ward, you’re contributing to health equity. You’re shaping the future of the profession. Nurses have always been entrepreneurs in practice; now we need to acknowledge it, celebrate it and invest in it. 

References: 

World Health Organization; Institute of Health Equity (2021). COVID‐19, the social determinants of health and health equity - evidence brief. 2021 
 

Bambra, C; Riordan, R; Ford, J; Matthew, F. (2020) The COVID-19 pandemic and health inequalities. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 74:964-968.


McGowan, V. J; Bambra, C. (2022) COVID-19 mortality and deprivation: pandemic, syndemic, and endemic inequality. The Lancet Public Health. 7 (11), e966 - e975. 


NHS Confederation (2020) PHE review on disparities in the risk and outcomes of COVID-19. 


Sierra, M; Franco-Paredes, C; Agudelo Higuita, N. I. (2023) Health inequities in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease. 10:20499361231162726.  


NHS England (2025) Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England. 


World Health Organization (WHO, 2021)Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery (SDNM) 2021–2025.