Most people still picture nursing as scrubs, 12-hour floor shifts, and break rooms with bad coffee. That picture is getting outdated. Thousands of RNs and NPs now work entirely from home, and the number of remote nursing positions keeps climbing year over year.
If you’ve been thinking about leaving bedside care but don’t want to leave the profession, this is worth a serious look. Remote nursing has moved well past the “niche experiment” phase. Companies are hiring for these roles at scale, the salaries are real, and the positions are open right now.
Why Remote Nursing Is Growing
Telehealth took off during the pandemic, but here’s the thing: it never went back. Virtual visits are a permanent fixture at major health systems now, and all those visits need clinical staff behind them. A 2023 survey found that 38% of healthcare organizations had already implemented virtual nursing programs, and that number has only grown since.
At the same time, insurance and managed care companies have always employed large numbers of nurses for case management, prior authorization, and utilization review. That work used to happen in cubicle farms. Now most of it happens from home offices.
Then there’s burnout. It’s not a buzzword for nurses. Hospitals are bleeding experienced staff to less physically demanding roles, and remote positions give those nurses a way to keep using their skills without wrecking their backs and their sleep schedules.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects roughly 194,500 nursing job openings per year through 2032, with overall employment growing 6%. Telehealth-specific roles are outpacing that number significantly. Companies like Cigna and Humana have built entire remote clinical operations around this trend.
Types of Remote Nursing Jobs
These roles are more varied than you might expect. Here’s what the landscape actually looks like:
Telehealth Nurse
This is the most visible remote nursing role. You’re triaging patient calls, running video assessments, and routing patients to the right level of care. Most employers want an active RN license and at least 2-3 years of clinical experience. Fair warning: many telehealth positions still involve shift work, including evenings and weekends.
Pay typically falls between $60,000 and $85,000/year.
Utilization Review Nurse
Insurance companies and health systems hire UR nurses to review treatment plans and decide whether they meet medical necessity criteria. Day to day, you’re reading charts, applying clinical guidelines like InterQual or Milliman, and making coverage determinations. If you like analytical work and have strong clinical judgment, this is a natural fit.
These roles generally pay $70,000 to $95,000/year.
Case Management Nurse
Case managers coordinate care for patients dealing with complex or chronic conditions. You’re the person connecting them with the right providers, managing care transitions, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks. This is one of the biggest categories of remote nursing work, and managed care organizations hire heavily for it.
Salaries range from $70,000 to $100,000/year.
Clinical Documentation Specialist
CDI nurses review medical records to make sure documentation accurately reflects what’s going on with the patient. You work directly with physicians to close gaps in their charting. These roles usually require some familiarity with ICD-10 coding on top of your clinical background.
Expect $75,000 to $100,000/year for CDI positions.
Nurse Health Coach
Health coaching roles focus on wellness, chronic disease management, and lifestyle changes. You’ll typically work with health plan members one-on-one over the phone. Insurance companies and digital health startups both hire for these positions. Motivational interviewing experience goes a long way here.
Pay runs $60,000 to $80,000/year.
Prior Authorization Nurse
Prior auth nurses review medication and procedure requests against insurance formularies and clinical guidelines. The work is high-volume and very detail-oriented. You’ll find most of these roles at pharmacy benefit managers and health plans.
Typical pay is $65,000 to $85,000/year.
Nursing Informatics
Informatics nurses sit at the intersection of clinical work and technology. You’re helping optimize EHR systems, analyzing patient data workflows, and improving how clinical teams interact with their software. Hospitals and health IT companies both hire for these roles, and the work is almost always remote or hybrid. You’ll want a BSN at minimum, and an MSN in informatics will open more doors.
Salaries average around $97,000/year, making this one of the higher-paying remote nursing paths.
Clinical Research Nurse
If you’re drawn to the science side of medicine, clinical research nursing lets you support medical studies from home. You’ll help recruit participants, manage study protocols, collect data, and ensure regulatory compliance. Pharma companies, CROs, and academic medical centers all hire remote research nurses. It’s niche, but the pay reflects that.
Expect $90,000 to $110,000/year depending on the sponsor and therapeutic area.
Legal Nurse Consultant
Legal nurse consultants review medical records for law firms handling malpractice, personal injury, or workers’ comp cases. You’re essentially translating clinical information into language that attorneys can use. Many LNCs work as independent contractors, which means you can set your own hours and take on as many or as few cases as you want. The earning ceiling is high if you build a solid client base.
Pay ranges widely, from $80,000 to $125,000/year for full-time roles.
Nurse Educator (Online)
Online nursing education has exploded, and accredited programs need experienced nurses to teach. You’d be delivering virtual lectures, leading discussions, grading clinical simulations, and mentoring students through their programs. Most positions require an MSN and several years of clinical experience. Some schools also want a Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) credential.
Full-time educator roles pay around $85,000 to $105,000/year.
Who’s Hiring Remote Nurses
Health insurance and managed care companies are by far the largest employers. If you search for remote nursing jobs, these names will come up constantly:
Cigna / Evernorth is one of the biggest. They hire remote nurses for utilization management, case management, and clinical operations across the country. If you only apply to one company, start here.
Humana has gone all-in on remote care models, particularly for their Medicare populations. They post a high volume of case management and telephonic nursing roles.
UnitedHealth Group / Optum runs a massive remote clinical workforce. Telehealth, care coordination, clinical review: they hire for all of it.
CVS Health / Aetna has built out significant remote nursing operations in utilization management and care management since the merger.
Blue Cross Blue Shield insures over 100 million people nationwide, and their various regional plans hire remote nurses for case management, triage, utilization review, and clinical review.
Elevance Health (formerly Anthem) consistently posts remote UM and case management roles across multiple states.
Beyond insurance, keep an eye on staffing firms like Piper Companies that fill remote nursing contracts for healthcare organizations. And if you’re interested in education, Kaplan and Varsity Tutors both hire nurses for NCLEX prep and tutoring roles.
Salary Expectations
Here’s a quick reference for what remote nursing roles are paying right now, based on real job postings:
| Role | Salary Range |
|---|---|
| Telehealth Nurse | $60K - $85K |
| Utilization Review | $70K - $95K |
| Case Management | $70K - $100K |
| Clinical Documentation | $75K - $100K |
| Prior Authorization | $65K - $85K |
| Nurse Health Coach | $60K - $80K |
| Nursing Informatics | $85K - $110K |
| Clinical Research Nurse | $90K - $110K |
| Legal Nurse Consultant | $80K - $125K |
| Nurse Educator | $85K - $105K |
These are base salaries. Most positions also come with annual bonuses, health insurance, 401(k) matching, and PTO. Some companies throw in sign-on bonuses for harder-to-fill clinical roles.
How does this compare to bedside pay? It’s roughly comparable at the entry level, sometimes a bit lower depending on your market. But you’re trading night shifts, physical strain, and a commute for a home office. For most nurses who make the switch, that math works out.
Pros and Cons of Remote Nursing
Before you start applying, it’s worth being honest about what you’re gaining and what you’re giving up.
What’s better:
- No commute, no scrubs, no 12-hour floor shifts
- Predictable schedules in most roles (UR, case management, CDI)
- Less physical wear on your body
- More flexibility for family, appointments, and life in general
- You can work from anywhere with a compact license
- Lower exposure to workplace illness and injury
- Career longevity: many nurses work remote roles well into their 50s and 60s
What you might miss or find challenging:
- Less patient interaction (some roles have almost none)
- Isolation can be real, especially if you’re used to a team environment
- Some roles are repetitive (prior auth and UR can feel like a grind)
- You need strong self-discipline with no one looking over your shoulder
- Home office setup costs money upfront if your employer doesn’t cover it
- Sitting all day brings its own health concerns
- Some positions still require shift work or on-call hours
It’s not for everyone. If you thrive on the energy of a busy unit and hands-on patient care, a desk job might feel suffocating. But if you’ve been doing bedside for years and your body is telling you it’s time for a change, the trade-offs are heavily in favor of going remote.
How to Transition to Remote Nursing
If you’re in bedside care and want to make the move, here’s a practical path:
1. Get Your Compact License
If your state participates in the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), get the multistate license. A lot of remote positions require you to be licensed in multiple states, and the compact covers 40+ automatically. This one step opens up way more opportunities.
Check your state’s status on the NCSBN website and verify that your license is current and compliant with telehealth practice regulations. Some states have specific telehealth rules that apply even with a compact license, so don’t skip this step.
2. Build Relevant Experience
Most remote roles look for 2-5 years of acute care experience. If you’ve got that, you’re already qualified for a lot of positions. Specialty backgrounds like ICU, oncology, or cardiac care are especially attractive for utilization management and case management roles.
3. Learn the Tools
Remote nursing has its own tech stack. Epic, Cerner, InterQual, various clinical review platforms, and telehealth tools like Amwell or Teladoc. The good news is that your EHR experience from bedside work translates directly. You’re not starting from zero.
4. Get Certified (Optional but Helpful)
A few certifications can give you an edge:
- CCM (Certified Case Manager) for case management roles
- CPHQ (Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality) for UM and QA roles
- Ambulatory Care Nursing Certification for telehealth and triage roles
- CNE (Certified Nurse Educator) if you want to teach online
- Legal Nurse Consultant Certification for LNC work
- Telehealth certificate programs from universities that now offer them
None of these are required for most positions, but they signal that you’re serious about the remote clinical space and can make your resume stand out in a competitive applicant pool.
5. Set Up Your Home Office
This is more important than it sounds. Most employers require a dedicated workspace, reliable internet (usually 25+ Mbps minimum), and a quiet environment for patient calls. Some want a hard-wired ethernet connection. The good news: many companies either provide equipment or give you a stipend.
Where to Find Remote Nursing Jobs
Job boards are the obvious starting point, but there are better ways to search than just typing “remote nurse” into Indeed and scrolling through pages of results.
Go direct to company career pages. The biggest employers (Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealth, CVS Health, Elevance) all have dedicated career sites. Filter by “remote” and “nursing” and you’ll see what’s actually open. These listings are often posted here before they hit the job boards.
Use specific search terms. Generic searches return too much noise. Try “remote utilization review nurse,” “work from home case manager RN,” or “telehealth triage nurse” to get more targeted results.
Check niche job boards. Sites that focus specifically on remote work or healthcare tend to have better signal-to-noise than the big generalist boards. You’re already on one.
Don’t overlook staffing agencies. Companies like Piper Companies and other healthcare staffing firms fill remote nursing contracts for organizations that don’t always post publicly. Getting on their radar can surface roles you’d never find on your own.
Set up alerts. Most job sites and company career pages let you create saved searches with email notifications. Set these up for your target roles and let the jobs come to you instead of checking manually every day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you really work from home as a nurse?
Yes. Thousands of nurses work entirely from home in roles like case management, utilization review, telehealth triage, and clinical documentation. These aren’t side gigs. They’re full-time positions with benefits at major companies like Cigna, Humana, and UnitedHealth Group.
What’s the highest paying remote nursing job?
Legal nurse consulting and nursing informatics tend to top out the highest, with salaries reaching $110,000-$125,000 at the upper end. Clinical research nursing is also on the higher end at $90,000-$110,000. Case management and CDI roles comfortably hit six figures at experienced levels.
Do you need bedside experience for remote nursing jobs?
Almost always, yes. Most employers want 2-5 years of clinical experience before they’ll consider you for a remote role. Your bedside experience is what makes you qualified to make clinical judgments from behind a screen. A few entry-level positions exist (like some call center nurse roles), but they’re the exception.
What license do I need to work remotely as a nurse?
An active RN license is the baseline. For most remote roles, you’ll want a multistate compact license through the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), which covers 40+ states. Some employers require you to hold a license in specific states where their patients are located, so check the job posting carefully.
Is remote nursing worth it compared to bedside?
It depends on what matters to you. The pay is roughly comparable (sometimes slightly lower at entry level), but you eliminate commuting, physical strain, night shifts, and exposure to workplace illness. Most nurses who make the switch say the quality of life improvement outweighs any pay difference. The main trade-off is less direct patient interaction.
Where This Is All Heading
Remote nursing isn’t a temporary trend or a pandemic leftover. Telehealth infrastructure is permanent, insurance companies are hiring remote clinical staff faster than ever, and the nurses who are burned out from floor work aren’t going back.
The pay is solid. The work-life balance is a different world from bedside care. And you actually get to keep using the clinical skills you spent years building.
We pull live job listings from company career pages every day. Scroll down to see what’s open right now.