Nurse Consultant (NOT LNC)

[Nurse_Ratched]

I'm considering marketing myself out as a Nurse Consultant. Basically I'd love to do business by providing recommendations and education to "clients" (patients, families, organizations) based on their individual situations.

For example, Mary's elderly mother is in the hospital with a complex illness and Mary isn't sure what's going on anymore. Everyday there are doctors and tests, but all Mary sees is her mother not getting better and the bills are piling up. As a Nurse Consultant I could speak with Mary and explain the situation in layman's terms, while also helping Mary advocate for her mother and her mother's wishes. Maybe they don't want to keep her alive via heroic measures but they don't know how to speak up. Maybe they don't understand or don't agree with a certain treatment but don't know how to speak up. Maybe they want her transferred to a hospital closer to home or closer to a specialist or wherever, but don't know how to speak up. I want to be the professional voice that these people & families need. How often are we as nurses asked by friends "Hey my brother/sister/mother/father/friend is in the hospital with _____ and they're doing this ______, can you explain why?"

I don't want to give out advice or push any of my beliefs of an agenda on my clients. I simply want to advocate for them, and help them make sure their wishes get honored. Make sure autonomy is honored, instead of just treating the patient like a number and going by standardized order sets. I would NOT say "I don't think you should get that done"; I would say "here's why it's ordered, here's what to expect before/during/after the procedure/treatment/intervention, here's how much it may cost, here are the risks, here are the benefits." All I want is a properly educated consumer, making choices about healthcare while prepped with the best possible resources.

Anyone have any input? Anyone ever do anything like this before?

I'm 27 y/o, with almost 5 years experience as an RN, all in the ED and critical care setting. BSN prepared, working on getting into grad school. I'm located in Delaware, so I'd have Philly & DC close-by for potential large markets, outside of Delaware areas.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

It's more of a patient advocate or care consultant . Look for posts from GrnTea as she has done work like this. There is even a credential for this.

[NedRN]

Marketing would be a major business concern. How would you find deep pocketed clients who can afford to pay you cash? While it wouldn't satisfy your need to directly manage your own career as a business, if you are really interested in this as a specialty, you might want to look for employment with a government or nonprofit that does this work. Not only would you gain relevant experience, you will be able to figure out if there is a viable business model for you to pursue privately.

[uxnurse]

Hi,

not sure if you're still interested in this or if you've made a go of it and its worked out. I currently am the patient education and engagement consultant for an enterprise medical software company that is looking to help boost hcaps for ortho patients. I do everything you just talked about by designing the curriculum but I saved my job by expalining that the videos while informative and thorough, didn't give the right take on helping a person decide what the best course of treatment for them was. I'm still barely hanging in there with this company that is looking for the bottom line by a bunch of people that have never worked the bedside, (went and got md/mba at the same time)by incorporating decision making instruments to patients that are objective and just an aid to help them. I made the case that it was one of our differentiating options from the others. There are a lot of healthcare startups that need nursing inputs for the ux and ui . I am actually a LVN who learned to program and then started doingn user experience research. The design process is identical to the nursing process. The only thing is trying to get people to see that , so I usually have to hit them over the head with it.

[TheSocialMediaCoach]

We live in a time where Clinical UX users are SO important! Start building your online body of work as evidence to what you do for either this company or your new company. I personally think you should be an Advisor to the many Health Startups, but start reaching out to that very active online community as well.