Can Hospitals Control Your Free Time?

Some hospitals will fire a nurse who has a business outside the facility.

I believe that the hospital does not own you and a nurse should be allowed to do what they want in their free time without any interference from the facility.  However, if you are a nurse who has a job outside the hospital and are doing something that would reflect unfavorably on your employer, they do have the right to terminate you.

In one case, a 37-year-old Boston area ICU nurse was forced to leave her hospital job because she had a “side gig.”   Allie Rae, mother of 3,  U.S. Navy veteran and nurse who served on the COVID medical front lines, is now a model with OnlyFans, where she displays herself in provocative poses, a job that brings in an unbelievable estimated $200,000.00 per month!

Even though she went by her pseudonym in the other job, other nurses at the hospital soon learned of her moonlighting and the issue quickly became a concern of the hospital’s administrators who said the photos did not portray nursing in a favorable light.

In my opinion, I think she looks amazing and wish that I looked that good at 37.

However, as nurses, we must uphold the standards requiring us to appear and be professional 24/7.  While I disagree with the firing of nurses for having a “side gig,” I can understand the employers not wanting negative attention or that would make it seem their nurses were not professionals.   I don’t understand employers terminating nurses with a second job of a legal nurse consultant, nurse advocate or another professional nursing position as long as it does not affect the healthcare facility and/or its reputation.

If you’re considering a side gig, the best advice is to be honest with your employer so you will know exactly where you stand.  Be in integrity.  The worst feeling is to hide or keep a secret.  If your moonlight job reflects negatively on your health care job or the facility, I would not be surprised if the hospital is not supportive.

I wish the best for the former nurse, Allie Rae, in her new career and hope that, should she ever want, she could return to the world of nursing.