Nurses have been urged to leverage digital healthcare and home-care opportunities to expand their careers beyond traditional hospital practice and create additional income streams.

The call was made at the Nurse Career Growth Summit 2026, organised around the theme, ‘Expanding Nursing Careers Through Digital Healthcare and Alternative Income Opportunities’, where health professionals and nursing practitioners examined the changing role of nurses and emerging opportunities in the health sector.

Speaking at the summit, the Chief Technical Officer of Nexa Nurses, Collins Nwude, said the company’s mobile application was developed to connect patients with qualified and registered nurses, rather than auxiliary nurses.

Nwude said home healthcare had been taking place informally, adding that the company was seeking to make the service more professional, accessible and reliable through technology.

According to him, Nexa Nurses is a digital healthcare platform with a mission to make professional healthcare more accessible and convenient for Nigerians while transforming healthcare delivery across Africa.

He said the Nexa Nurses app, which bears the same name as the company, was scheduled for an official launch on September 7 and was available on the Play Store and iOS.

Nwude also highlighted security features incorporated into the platform, noting that the app has an SOS system that can track a nurse’s location and alert the company in the event of an emergency or security concern.

He added that the company would engage security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Police Force, to explore partnerships that could further strengthen the safety of patients and nurses using the platform.

Also, the guest speaker, Dr Francis Adeshina, urged nurses to look beyond the four walls of hospitals and explore opportunities to provide healthcare services directly to patients in their homes.

Adeshina said the emergence of digital platforms such as Nexa Nurses could help connect qualified nurses with people requiring healthcare services while creating additional income opportunities for practitioners.

He identified home healthcare as one area where nurses could expand their professional and financial opportunities, adding that technology would increasingly shape the future of healthcare delivery.