What You Give Up
Every article about independent practice is a marketing pitch for the upside. This one covers the cost, because a proposition that describes only half is not one a sensible clinician should act on.
You lose employment protections
Sick leave, annual leave and someone else handling your tax. Superannuation arrangements change. There is no payslip arriving regardless of what happened that fortnight, and in the first year income becomes variable.
You arrange your own cover
Professional indemnity insurance suitable to independent practice. Registration currency, it's always yours, but it used to be someone's job to remind you of it.
You build your own governance
This is the one that most people underestimate. Employed nurses sit inside the organisation's clinical governance: policies, escalations, peer reviews, a more senior individual to call at 2am.
Independent, you build it yourself. On purpose and not by chance. Who you escalate to. Who reviews your practice. Which colleagues you can call. It is entirely doable, and it won't happen unless you make it happen.
You carry the difficult conversations
No manager above you. When a family is unhappy, when a worker is not performing, when a client's needs outgrow the arrangement, it's you.
What we do not carry
We assist you with the client pipeline, recruitment and administration. We don't carry your insurance, your entitlements, your tax or your clinical governance. Anyone claiming otherwise is overselling.
Who this genuinely suits
Experienced, self-directed nurses who are honest about what they will and won't take on alone. Individuals confident in making independent clinical decisions. Those ready for the autonomy and willing to take responsibility for what comes with it.
Who it does not
Early-career nurses who require supervision and structure, and should receive it. Anyone who does not have the cash to cover a variable first year. Anyone who hopes it won't be as much work because it's a different kind of work.
If you read that list and saw yourself in the second half, employment is a valid answer, and we'd rather you stayed where you are than started something that isn't a good fit for you.
How this plays out in practice
Imagine a nurse who reads the honest version and decides against it, then returns eighteen months later when her situation has changed. That is a better outcome than starting on a half-finished picture and ending up short.
Next steps
If the trade-offs sound manageable, create a profile and take one client alongside whatever you're doing now. The first client tells you more than any further reading will.
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