Teach nurses business skills, urges leading US entrepreneur

Nurses need to know how to put a business plan together, says the woman at the forefront of a successful nurse-led primary care model in the United States (US)

National Nursing Centers Consortium (NNCC) chief executive Tine Hansen-Turton has been instrumental in raising the profile of advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) across the US over the past 20 years.

The NNCC is a non-profit organisation supporting the growth and development of over 500 nurse-led clinics and school health clinics, serving more than five million people in urban and rural locations.  

Speaking at the International Council of Nurses 2017 congress in Barcelona on Monday, Dr Hansen-Turton said she felt business and pitching skills should be taught in nursing curriculums to help nurses engage and influence policy makers and managers.

‘It's just tools in your tool box – I teach [health policy in the school of nursing] at the University of Pennsylvania and we build business training into that,’ she said.

Key initiative

Dr Hansen-Turton said that when she was setting up nurse-led primary care clinics, educating the ANPs on how to come up with a business model had been key.

‘It is something that everyone can be taught and we don’t need to go to business school to do that.

‘I think nurses are incredible entrepreneurs – we need to show them how to put a business plan together.

‘Nurses can pitch – they are the best people at selling an idea.'

She added that nurses working in the nurse-led retail clinics also benefited financially from learning to navigate their work through a business environment.

'Any nurse-led model should have a solid business model behind it.'

Nursing model

Another innovator in nurse-led care spoke about his hugely successful neighbourhood district nursing model known as Buurtzorg.

Founder Jos De Blok told congress that his organisation began in 2006 with three other nurses who wanted to change the delivery of healthcare in the country.

'The model was based on community care,' Mr De Blok said, explaining there are no managers and the organisation is not hierarchical.

Profits are shared out in nurses' bonuses at the end of the year.

'There are now 10,000 nurses working in 900 self-organising teams without management – caring for more than 80,000 patients a year.'

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