For nurses who have spent years noticing problems that nobody has solved yet, there is now a program built specifically for them. Nurse Approved announced the launch of its Fellowship program, a six-month program open to any nurse interested in entrepreneurship — whether they have a company in progress or are just starting to explore the idea. Applications close October 4, and the cohort kicks off the week of October 12.
Built around what nurses exploring entrepreneurship actually need
Nurses already think like founders. They assess situations with incomplete information, triage competing priorities, build real-time workarounds when the official process fails, and advocate for things nobody else in the room is advocating for. What they typically lack is the infrastructure around those instincts: advisors who know the market, honest feedback on whether an idea is a company or just a feature, and introductions to people who have already made the mistakes they're about to make.
That's exactly what the Fellowship provides. Fellows receive direct mentorship from nurse operators who have raised, built, and exited, along with free enrollment in the Nurse Entrepreneur Accelerator course, which runs concurrently with the program and covers the fundamentals of building and selling in the healthcare market.
The Fellowship is led end to end by Claire Hast, who selects the cohort, runs the sessions, and works directly with founders across the full six months. It's designed to be substantive, not supplementary — the kind of program where the people running it are as invested in your outcome as you are.
For startups that are ready, there's also a path to the NurseApproved Seal, the organization's independent certification earned through evaluation by a panel of practicing nurses. It's a high bar. Not every product clears it. That's what makes it worth something when yours does.
The bigger picture
Nursing is the most trusted profession in America and the largest workforce in healthcare. And yet nurse founders remain largely absent from the rooms where health innovation gets funded and built. The Fellowship is Nurse Approved's answer to that gap: structured support, real network access, and a credentialing path that gives nurse-led products standing in the market.
"If you're building it, we're behind it."
Rebecca Love, CEO, Nurse Approved
The program fee is $1,499 and runs six months. Applications close Sunday, October 4. Any nurse with an interest in entrepreneurship is encouraged to apply — whether you have a company in progress, an idea you've been sitting on, or you're simply ready to explore what building looks like for you.