Free Consultation - Call: 239-590-0861
Free Consultation - Call: 239-590-0861
Proudly serving families in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Bonita Springs, and surrounding Southwest Florida communities.
If you’re a CNA or HHA weighing an in-home care job against a nursing home job, here’s the answer most people miss: you don’t have to choose. The smartest caregivers often do both. A nursing home job gives you a steady paycheck, benefits, and a predictable baseline. Private in-home clients — the kind a nurse registry like Abby Services refers — give you higher pay, control over your schedule, and a lighter workload of one or two clients instead of a whole wing. Combined, you get the stability of an employer and the freedom and income of private work. Here’s how that works, and why it’s worth considering.
A quick word on where this comes from. My name is Scott Strachan. I’m a Registered Nurse and the owner of Abby Services, and I’ve worked both sides of this — as a CNA in private client homes, in nursing homes, and in hospitals, and later as a nurse in those same settings. I’m not knocking nursing home work; it’s honorable, and it taught me a lot. But I’ve seen firsthand what caregivers gain when they add private in-home clients to the mix.
Let’s be fair to the nursing home side, because it has real advantages, especially as a foundation:
For many caregivers, that stability is the anchor. The mistake is assuming it has to be the whole picture.
Working with private clients referred through a nurse registry is a different experience, and it fills the gaps a facility job leaves:
Here’s the combination that works so well. Keep the nursing home job for the stability and benefits — the W-2 base that covers your insurance and gives you a floor. Then take private in-home clients through Abby Services around that schedule, for the higher pay and flexibility. You’re not gambling your security to chase better pay; you’re adding better pay on top of your security.
Plenty of caregivers use private in-home work exactly this way: to fill open days, pick up higher-paying hours between shifts, or build toward eventually going independent full-time once they’ve established a steady base of private clients. Because you control your availability, private work bends around your life instead of competing with it.
If you’re in nursing school, this combination is even more valuable. Private in-home CNA work offers the flexible scheduling that fits around clinicals and classes, pays well, and gives you real one-on-one patient experience that’s hard to get anywhere else — the kind that makes you a better nurse and stands out on a resume. Many students find private in-home care the ideal way to earn while they learn.
Abby Services is a state licensed nurse registry in Fort Myers. We don’t employ caregivers — we refer screened, qualified CNAs and HHAs to private clients who need in-home care, and we handle the administrative side (matching, invoicing, and payment processing) so you can focus on the care. You stay independent, set your own rate and schedule, and take the referrals that fit.
To be considered for referrals, you’ll need to meet Florida’s registration and Level 2 background-screening standards for the services you offer. If you’re a CNA or HHA in Lee, Collier, or Charlotte County and you’d like to add private in-home clients to your work, we’d like to hear from you.
Ready to add higher-paying private clients to your schedule?
Abby Services has connected Southwest Florida caregivers with private clients since 1997. Whether you want a few extra hours a week or a path toward independent work, we can help you build it.
Call 239-590-0861 or apply to become a care provider with Abby Services.
Yes, and many caregivers do exactly that. Because caregivers referred through a registry are independent contractors who set their own availability, you can take private clients around your facility schedule — keeping the benefits and stability of your employer while adding higher-paying, flexible private work.
Private in-home care in Southwest Florida generally pays more per hour than facility caregiver wages, and you typically care for one client instead of many. Exact rates vary; because you’re an independent contractor, you negotiate your rate directly with the client.
No. Abby Services is a nurse registry — we refer caregivers to private clients and provide administrative support. The caregivers we refer are self-employed independent contractors who set their own rates and schedules. Under Florida law, a caregiver referred by a licensed nurse registry is an independent contractor, not an employee of the registry.
You’ll need to meet Florida’s registration and Level 2 background-screening requirements for the services you provide (for example, an active CNA certification or documented HHA training). Contact us and we’ll walk you through what’s needed.
