By Susan Sinclair, RN, MSN

Think about the following words: bold, resourceful, fearless, motivated, and driven. These words describe nurses, but they also easily describe nurse entrepreneurs. These words also embody the NNBA conference. Inspiration would be another appropriate word for the conference! Why is this conference so big and so pertinent to every nurse (entrepreneur or not)? We’ll discuss the benefits, the return on investment, evidence-based practice, and much more! Keep reading to find out what nurses in the know, know…

Nurses’ Week is here again! One of the best gifts you can give yourself is a trip to the 2023 annual NNBA conference. What’s all the fuss about? For starters, you will discover a vast network of nurse entrepreneurs. This wide net includes novice entrepreneurs to seasoned multi-business owners. The network also includes nurses from multiple specialties and business owners from all backgrounds. This gives you variety and a vast scope to gain ideas, inspiration, and discover what people are doing!

One of the benefits of networking is that you may find a mentor, coach, or role model. Mentors are crucial to successful businesses because nurses do not know how to create or run a business. We all know that this is not taught in nursing school! Even the seasoned nurse entrepreneur does not know everything and has coaches or role models whom he or she leans on. As the president of NNBA, Michelle Podlesni, wrote in her 2016 blog post “Role Models, Coaches, Mentors,” there are differences between mentors, role models, and coaches.

Do you remember the children’s book by PD Eastman, Are You My Mother? The poor little bird desperately looks for his mother and comes across a variety of possible mothers but none that fit his mother’s description. He eventually reunites with his actual mother in the end. This story parallels nurses finding their tribe of like-minded people (mentors, coaches, and role models) in business. It takes persistence and wading through various trials and tribulations to find the right tribe that meshes with your personality and goals.

If you’re already a member of NNBA then you know you receive a discount on tickets for the annual conference. Not just once a year, but throughout the year members reap benefits by being part of this organization. Benefits include continued learning and calendar event advertising. NNBA membership also includes exclusive access to professional CEUs, videos, and online products and courses that teach business basics and other pertinent topics related to business ownership.

Are you still not convinced that the 2023 NNBA conference isn’t a great gift to yourself? Let’s talk about the evidence that nurse empowerment makes a difference. Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is looking at nurse entrepreneurs and their journeys. Several words were mentioned at the beginning of this article: bold, resourceful, fearless, motivated, and driven. These are not just descriptors but actions that the entrepreneur must do in order to learn, expand, and create lift-off. EBP practice is starting to research what empowerment means and examine the science behind it.

Vannucci and Weinstein researched nurse entrepreneurs and what empowerment means to them in their 2017 study: “The nurse entrepreneur: empowerment needs, challenges, and self-care practices.” https://doi.org/10.2147/NRR.S98407. The study looked at the motivating factors that cause shifts to nurse entrepreneurship. It also noted the importance of self-care practices for nurse entrepreneurs. One of Michelle Podlesni’s books UNconventional Nurse: Going from Burnout to Bliss was cited as one of the references in this study. It was found that self-care may vary (and levels increase) depending on the experience of the nurse entrepreneur.

Another example of Evidence-Based Practice application is the 2021 textbook by Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk and Tim Raderstorf: Evidence-based Leadership, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in Nursing and Healthcare. This book is a deep dive into the many aspects of entrepreneurship and leadership. It offers leadership strategies that can translate into actionable steps for entrepreneurship. Chapter 19 was co-authored by Michelle Podlesni as well. There are more research studies and books being written on the science and evidence that empowerment has on nurse entrepreneurship.

It is encouraging that as a profession, we are recognizing that entrepreneurs can make as much of a difference (if not more) than traditional hands-on nursing. It’s also important to promote wider views of the nursing profession and educate laypeople about the various roles that nurses may have. It is refreshing to know that nurse entrepreneurs can truly change the nursing profession.

How does this add up to a worthy investment in your nursing practice? All the evidence noted above speaks for itself. It’s important to note that you do not have to be an established entrepreneur to benefit from the conference. Many previous attendees who were not entrepreneurs at the time have raved about the experience and its function in “getting the wheels turning” in considering developing a business.

Consider attending the NNBA conference as one of the ultimate acts of self-care for you and your career. The environment to network, meet mentors, coaches, and role models is invaluable. The gift of self-care during Nurses’ Week to attend the conference will be the gift that keeps giving. NNBA is a bolus of vitamins for your nursing career- regardless of your stage.

Bold, resourceful, fearless, motivated, and driven…do these words of empowerment describe you? As an individual, as a nurse, as an entrepreneur, or future entrepreneur? Words carry power and they also portray how we present ourselves to the world-whether we realize it or not. These powerful words certainly describe how the 2023 annual NNBA conference can inspire you to catapult your nurse entrepreneurship goals.

There is no doubt that the 2023 annual NNBA conference will change your nursing career…the question is how far do you want to fly?

Author’s Bio

I am a nurse writer and editor. I create healthcare content including landing pages, blogs, trade magazine articles, and editing services. I always aim to elevate the nursing profession. I have clinical experience in multiple specialties and currently work in home health and clinical trials. Please contact me via LinkedIn or susansinclairwriting@gmail.com.