10 Best Nursing Jobs For Fitness Enthusiasts

Nurses are in demand everywhere you look. Nursing jobs offer great job security, high pay, the opportunity to help others, and a variety of career paths.

This means nurses can choose among many jobs to find one that fits their needs and wants, whether that is the ability to travel, enjoy a good work-life balance, or get paid to work out.

It’s also a job that can be much more physically demanding than many imagine. This makes it a great opportunity for people with a natural love for sports and fitness to flourish and combine their passion with their desire to help others.

Today, there is an increasing demand for nursing positions. If you are planning to map out your career path in the nursing industry and enter the job market as a nurse you can start exploring various job opportunities available online on industry-specific job announcement websites like PRN nurse jobs or NurseBuff and NurseFinders.

Top 10 Nursing Jobs For Fitness Lovers

Here are the best nursing jobs that involve a lot of movement and exercise and are perfect for any fitness enthusiast:

1. Camp Nurse

As a camp nurse, you’re going to take care of everything from allergic reactions to severe injuries.

Kids may get anything from skinned knees to concussions. It will be your responsibility to provide first aid to children, as well as observing symptoms.

One of the biggest benefits to you is the ability to enjoy the camp when your shift is over. You’ll be in a great setting if you want to participate in any activity or go for a hike after your workday.

You can also choose to work at camps serving kids with special needs. These can range from camps for kids with mental disabilities, to cancer or another condition.

Not only will you be providing access to these campers, but you may also be able to participate in events along with them to ensure their health and safety.

Camp nurses may also work at camps engaging in high-risk activities like horseback riding or water sports.

With these, you get to go horseback riding every evening and on your days off. Or you could spend your time off on the beach, practicing at the archery range or playing sports.

Camp nurses are paid around $60,000, but there is a fair chance the job includes room and board.

2. Cruise Ship Nurse

A cruise ship nurse is essential on any cruise line. One of the biggest benefits, of course, is that you’ll actually be paid to take cruises. But it’s also a great job where you’ll get to be active and serve a variety of roles.

When on shift, you’ll take care of patients with everything from food poisoning to traumatic injuries. You’ll take care of staff with seasickness and passengers who think they’re having heart attacks.

This job allows you to swim in the ocean when in port or on the cruise ship’s swimming pool if you don’t want to take advantage of their other amenities.

The average pay is around $70,000 a year, and you’ll probably be living on the cruise ship during your assignment.

A related job is being a yacht nurse. In this role, you’ll be expected to provide on-demand medical care. You might be asked to serve in additional roles, for example as a deckhand.

On the other hand, as a yacht nurse, you’ll have a lighter than average workload, and will also have amazing experiences on your days off.

Occupational Health Nurse

3. Occupational Health Nurse

Occupational health nurses work at private companies helping them maintain health standards. As an occupational health nurse, you will audit reports to verify that the company is in compliance with government regulations.

Their work includes assessing the health of staff and giving advice on how to improve organizational productivity. You’ll also be able to use your knowledge of fitness to give advice on how to prevent injuries at work, for instance.

This job can also involve treating workplace injuries and determining whether someone has recovered sufficiently to return to work.

This is not as demanding as physical therapy, but you’ll do more than taking temperatures and dispensing medication. You may also be asked to provide seminars on nutrition, hygiene, and physical exercise.

This is one of the highest-paying nursing jobs with an average pay of around $70,000 a year.

Most of these jobs are at corporate job sites, but you may work at a hospital, as well.

4. Rehabilitation Nurse

Rehabilitation nurses work in a physically demanding field. They work with patients to help them maximize their independence and physical abilities.

Good rehabilitation nurses provide emotional, social, and physical health support to their clients.

This is also a place where you’ll be able to use your fitness experience to improve your patients’ range of movement.

This job pays nearly $80,000 a year on average. It’s also a job where you’ll need to be in good physical shape to help patients of all ages and sizes.

5. Nurse Health Coach

Nurse health coaches are there to help their clients meet their health goals. This may include losing weight, reducing stress or living with a long-term health condition.

As a nurse health coach, you’ll perform evaluations and provide clinical interventions. You may also need to demonstrate to clients the right way to perform an exercise or take them to the gym to motivate them to visit more regularly.

In fact, the American Fitness Professionals and Associates association offers voluntary certificates to health coaches.

The average salary for health coaches is around $45,000. You could have your own clients or be employed by an insurance company.

Family Nurse Practitioner

6. A Family Nurse Practitioner

A family nurse practitioner, FNP, is trained to do almost everything family doctors can do.

They see patients of all ages, and the family nurse practitioner’s scope of practice includes performing exams, ordering tests, and prescribing treatments.

You’ll be able to advise them on how to stay healthy, whether it is improving their diet, level of physical activity, or a combination thereof. You’ll be on your feet most of the day attending to patients.

You could work in private practice, an urgent care center or a retail clinic. The biggest benefit of working in this area is that you’ll earn between $90,000 and $100,000 a year.

In addition, you’ll be able to see the progress your patients are making and see when they’re letting themselves go. Being able to have this impact on someone’s life and health is something that only a few can boast.

7. Fitness Nursing

A related profession to health coaching is nutrition and fitness nursing. This job combines dietary planning, illness and injury prevention, and physical training.

Fitness nurses aid patients recovering from injuries, surgery or seizures. They might also work for professional sports centers or universities.

They’ll lead patients in exercises and then monitor their health as they perform them. This rather new profession pays around $70,000 a year.

Note that a fitness nurse needs to be a registered nurse with at least a bachelor’s degree. A cardiac rehabilitation nurse will need ACLS certification, as well.

Yet this is one of the best nursing jobs for fitness enthusiasts since you’re working with athletes, health club members, and companies that want to improve the fitness level or health of their employees.

This job is often a springboard to starting your own health coaching business.

8. Sports Medicine Nurse

A sports medicine nurse is usually a nurse practitioner or an NP. These nurses help physicians care for patients with various injuries. These injuries range from strains, sprains, and ligament damage to dislocated joints and bone fractures.

This isn’t a formal medical specialty like some of the others on our list. On the other hand, it is a field that’s open to advanced practice nurses and is a great choice for those who want to work in orthopedics or physical therapy.

As a sports medicine nurse, you will be working with everyone from aspiring teen athletes to professional athletes.

Sports medicine nurses usually work in clinics and orthopedic practices. They may work in the first aid stations of sporting events, as well.

Public Health Nurse

9. Public Health Nurse

If you want to be able to help populations in need and affect change on a grander scale, you could also become a public health nurse.

You can help lead efforts to start public programs that could encourage physical activity among children or seniors, for instance.

You’ll usually be called to work on research and might even be called to work with governmental agencies at the state and federal level.

This is one of the most rewarding fields for nurses, and a great option if you don’t necessarily want to work in a clinical setting.

As a public health nurse, you might also be called to prevent epidemics, work on advocacy programs, and help improve the health of communities at large.

10. Paramedic

You could also work as a paramedic if you like being on the move and helping people in critical situations.

This is a position that demands a good level of physical fitness and strength and is not a job for the faint of heart.

However, if you feel like you’re built for it and love the action, then this role could be a perfect choice.

The demand for nurses is expected to grow 15 percent over the next ten years, and they are needed literally everywhere.

If you love hitting the gym or spending time in the outdoors, you can find many nursing jobs that let you stay active in the area you love.