Nurse-Run Child Care

jax4224 · Jun 10, 2014

I like the name Healing Hands Nursery. I wish there was a center here in Jacksonville Florida. I always thought it would be a gold mine if one of the child care centers would accommodate nurses schedule. Everyone that I find, is open from 6:30am -6:00pm. Good luck to you. Sounds like a very solid plan. I hope that you would offer hospital staff hours.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Jun 10, 2014

be careful that you do not givie the impression that nurses are taking care of the kids or expectations might be too high and you could find yourself liable for sick or injured kids. You moight be accused of working outside your scope of practice or presecribing care. I would get plenty of insurance. As for a name - again, I would de-emphasize nursing involvement.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2014

It's really ok to let people know that you have nurses on staff, but you want to be verrrrrrry careful to be sure that you aren't hiring them as nurses or advertising yourselves as "nurses who take care of kids." Look at your nurse practice act carefully to see what you can do autonomously, in case you feel the need to do something more than basic first aid or give the meds your parents give you (and have very strict forms for how you do that, too)-- calling 911 prn will save your bacon in this regard.

You're aiming for, "We take care of kids and are a licensed daycare," which covers all the qualifications the state will require. That should do it.

elkpark · Jun 10, 2014

Of course, you are going to check with your state licensing agency about what the requirements are for opening and operating a daycare center. You may well find that you need additional education/credentials (or need to hire someone who does) besides your nursing education and license.

I, too, would advise you to be verrrrrry cautious about naming the center or advertising to the public in any way that might be construed as your offering nursing care at the center.

tigerRN922 · Jun 10, 2014

Definitely no nursing care. Just nurses watching kids outside of their part time nursing jobs. A lot of us find a hard time trusting someone to watch our kids and we feel that a nurse-run daycare would do well.

We do not hire nurses but child care workers who happen to be nurses wanting to make some extra money outside of their nursing jobs. Make sense?? So I'm going for a name that kind of signals, hey your kids are safe here, we are nurses...Not bring your kids here when they are sick cause we will help. Just a regular daycare but I feel that it would be more trusted than just your average child care center...And we would also be sure to accommodate nursing shift hours...so run by nurses for nurses!

elkpark · Jun 10, 2014

Also, be aware that, as a licensed RN, you cannot "turn off" your RN license. You are an RN 24/7/365. You can say "no nursing care," but if anything were to go sideways enough at the childcare center to end up in court, the courts will hold you to the standards of your RN license, regardless of what you told anyone about not providing nursing care.

I would suggest discussing this with your professional liability ("malpratice") insurance provider as well as your state daycare licensing authority. Best wishes!

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jun 10, 2014

Y'know, I read your post when it first went up, no responses....and I really hesitated to post what I thought for fear of raining on your parade. And I've had a kinda cruddy day, so maybe I would be a bit biased....like that.

But I see now that several others share my initial concern. About the last thing I think is a "good idea" is a childcare facility that advertises itself as "nurse owned/operated". You may think that doesn't indicate that you will provide nursing care for the little darlings, but I would disagree. People will take that as an added bonus for their childcare buck: look, if anything happens to Johnny, the nurses will make SURE he's perfectly fine. And if anything happens, well, as nurses they would be responsible even more so than the average childcare facility, right? Because....they're NURSES!

I'm sorry, but just think it's not well-designed, as a marketing tool at any rate. A childcare facility has enough liabilities inherent; throw in medical licenses and BANG: opportunity for a juicy lawsuit if something goes wrong (and doesn't it always?).

Clovery · Jun 10, 2014

OP, I think everyone is giving you good advice about being cautious to keep within your scope of practice. That being said, I think it's a good idea and I would feel comfortable knowing RNs were with my child throughout the day. I hope it works out for you!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jun 13, 2014

Definitely no nursing care. Just nurses watching kids outside of their part time nursing jobs. A lot of us find a hard time trusting someone to watch our kids and we feel that a nurse-run daycare would do well.
We do not hire nurses but child care workers who happen to be nurses wanting to make some extra money outside of their nursing jobs. Make sense??

That makes sense as a business model for you to hire workers. However, this is where you're gonna get into trouble:

So I'm going for a name that kind of signals, hey your kids are safe here, we are nurses...Not bring your kids here when they are sick cause we will help. Just a regular daycare but I feel that it would be more trusted than just your average child care center...And we would also be sure to accommodate nursing shift hours...so run by nurses for nurses!

...because you're implying that you are nurses so you might be more trustworthy and kids might be safe there because you're nurses. Even if true, you can't advertise anything like that without what's called an implied guarantee-- not in an ad in the paper, the business name on your sign out front, or the name on your daycare license or your business stationery.

I hear you, you're proud of being nurses, you want that known... but this is not a good context in which to do it. If you want to advertise that you're open until midnight or open up the doors at 0600 to accommodate nurses' hours, great, do that. But you really, really should not say or imply that you are somehow different kinds of caregivers in a licensed daycare because you are nurses.

HeidiroseRN · Feb 25, 2015

Hello TigerRN922, I just read this post and 2 of my nursing friends and I are looking into opening a day care and marketing that we are nurses and can take kids with simple medical problems such as diabetes, allergies, etc. Did you ever end up doing this? Do you have any advice? It would be greatly appreciated!

2k15NurseExtern4u, BSN, RN · Aug 20, 2015

Update?