Katharine Ryan
Ventiv Health
Nurse Adviser teams have seen a rapid
growth over the last 5 years, yet they remain an area of mystery for many. This
article, the first of a series of 3, aims to start to shed some light on the
role of Nurse Adviser within the pharmaceutical industry.
The
Growth of Nurse Advisers
Nurse Adviser (or Advisor), Nurse
Facilitator and Nurse Specialist are just some of the titles applied to Nurses
working on a wide variety of programmes sponsored by pharmaceutical companies.
There are great variances in their day to day roles, therapeutic specialities
and programme objectives but the one commonality is that they are all
registered nurses, working within the guidelines of the UKCC Code of Conduct
and the ABPI Code of Practice.
All Nurse Advisers working in a
nursing capacity are expected to be totally non-promotional, maintaining the
highest professional and ethical standards at all times. They are introduced to
practices as ‘independent’ nurses sponsored by X pharmaceutical
company. Their services are not dependent on any particular product being
prescribed. Their role usually provides benefits for a number of stakeholders
from the patient through to the medical professionals and the sponsoring
pharmaceutical company. It can also provide a great opportunity for more
commercially-minded nurses who want a change from the NHS and want to
specialise within one specific therapy area. (more on that in the next
article).
It is this real win-win outcome that, in tandem with an
increasing focus on health improvement, has heralded the rise of the Nurse
Adviser. For busy practices trying to fulfil increasingly demanding clinical
targets, a Nurse Adviser is a welcome additional resource who can assist in
this area. The supernumerary nurse can focus their specialist skills on one
specific area, leaving the practice staff to continue with their daily
workloads.
The patients benefit because the nurses have the time to
spend auditing and implementing best practice, identifying and reviewing
patients against clinical guidelines, educating them and switching or
introducing therapy if necessary. Hopefully this will result in better health
outcomes for the patients.
The pharmaceutical company benefits by
gaining kudos for sponsoring this additional expert resource and for raising
standards in particular disease areas. Additionally, an increase in the size of
the patient population being treated and increased compliance can lead to an
increase in the market and even the market share. Although, the ethical nature
of these programmes means that the Nurse Advisers never get involved in
promoting any products, this still firmly remains the remit of the local
medical representative.
One of the benefits of using a Nurse Adviser
team which can not be emphasised enough is the relative ease of building close
working relationships with customers. We have grown used to an environment
where there has been a phenomenal growth in representative numbers, coupled
with an increase in the number of doctors who ‘won’t see’. It
is, therefore, refreshing for a pharmaceutical company to invest in a team of
nurses who are welcomed into many practices because of the added value that
they bring.
In many cases, nurse teams have worked on a local,
regional and sometimes national basis, driving forward best practice and
raising clinical standards in partnership with PCTs and Health Authorities. In
particular, Nurse Advisers will work with these groups to assist in the
development of policies, guidelines and patient group directions. In addition,
publications arising from these programmes mean that an even wider audience can
be reached. All in all, Nurse Advisers get closer to the customer than most
representatives would ever imagine possible.
The Future of Nurse
Advisers
The recent growth in Nurse Adviser teams, has clearly
been in response to the changes in our customer’s environment. These
changes have forced us to think of more novel ways of engaging our customers
and building a meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship. These changes
have also facilitated such opportunities.
Whilst our customers’
environment is driven by clinical targets through initiatives such as National
Service Frameworks (NSFs), National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE)
and Health Improvement Plans (HImPs) the opportunities to utilise Nurse Adviser
teams seem set only to increase. If your company does not already include Nurse
Advisers in its business strategy there is a strong possibility that it
won’t be long before it does. To find out more about maximising the
relationship between representatives and Nurse Advisers see the third article
in this series. In the meantime, the next instalment will consider the role
from the nurse’s point of view.
Objectives for each nurse project
can be extremely varied and might include some or all of the following
elements:
|
Nurse advisor
jobs |
- Education in specific therapy areas for both medical
professionals and
patients - Administering to patients
- Reviewing patient therapy
- Recommending alterations to drug dosage
- Data trawling
- Audit against a set of standards
- Product support (compliance/education to patients)
- Raising the profile of the sponsoring company
Read the second part of this series by
clicking here.
About the author
Katharine Ryan is the Communications and
Recruitment Director for Ventiv Health, a leading provider of sales and
marketing solutions to the pharmaceutical industry. In the last seven years
Ventiv has successfully delivered Nurse Advisor solutions for many of the
leading pharmaceutical companies.
