Nurses who provide inservices on new medical products?

[moomoobeach]

Hi. A nurse came to our unit to provide the other nurses information of a new product that we will be using in our hospital. What are these nurses called and how do I get a job with them?! Is it a nurse educator? Do I need my masters to teach other nurses about such products? What companies need nurses to do inservice teachings? The in-service took no longer than five minutes.

I would love to venture to different hospitals in my area to teach nurses how to use new products. I just have no idea how to apply, etc

I definitely feel like I missed my moment in getting a job in such a position lol

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

They are often nurse educators and/or marketing representatives. Usually they want a minimum of BSN with a certain number of years experience in the specialty the product serves. Sometimes they do want an MSN, as you not only teach other nurses and professionals about the product and how to use it, you are called upon to understand the research and communicate with multiple levels of medical experts, both in a learning and teaching capacity.

[Flatline, BSN, RN]

PM me.

There are various kinds of people you will see in-servicing at your facility. Most likely you saw a per-diem educator that the medical company contracts with. There are several large staffing companies that do this kind of thing. Good news is they have no specific education or experience requirements, you can be a diploma nurse from L&D teaching on a wound care products. Bad news is the pay is just OK, around hospital pay, maybe a bit better. You usually get a per-diem lump sum of money, usually $100-$50 a day to pay for meals and they cover your hotel, flight and car. Fly all over the country.

The next level of support you may see are full-time employees of the company and they come in a few flavors. They have full-time employees that educate but have no specific education or experience needs, many times you are actually employed by a staffing company but contracted full-time for the company. The next flavor are clinical experts/clinical support staff that do have some expertise in their given field. Many times these people are directly hired by the actual company. Usually there are no education requirements but they highly value certifications and experience.

The last flavor is more of a mixed bag, you can see sales reps educating, product developers, and other corporate entities depending on what is going on. These people (except the sales rep) generally live out of the corporate office, everyone else is dispersed throughout the country. Corporate people will be where the money is but you do have to relocate.

Go into your supply room or med room and write down every single company you see. Then go online and search for registered nurse, clinical, therapy, expert, or educator on their website and see what pops up. If you just want to dip a toe in and see if you like in-servicing then look at the staffing companies.

Join LinkedIn, develop a good profile, start adding companies and people. Look for ads in the specialty areas that interest you. If you like oncology for example, join ONS and look at their website and magazines...companies will post ads.

Talk to the person who in-serviced you. I was recruited by a large company just because I talked to the person educating me and showed an interest.

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

They are generally nurses that work for companies like Philips and Bard, just to name a couple and they work in sales more then likely. That is a very lucrative field from what I hear, as is pharmacy representative, but I think you have to be at least an 8 on the scale of looks. Not trying to sound shallow, but that is what I heard. Also there is a A TON of traveling involved as you are going to different sites every few days to do the training, so that is huge downside. Unless you like to travel of course and have no husband/children.

Annie

[Flatline, BSN, RN]

They are generally nurses that work for companies like Philips and Bard, just to name a couple and they work in sales more then likely. That is a very lucrative field from what I hear, as is pharmacy representative, but I think you have to be at least an 8 on the scale of looks. Not trying to sound shallow, but that is what I heard. Also there is a A TON of traveling involved as you are going to different sites every few days to do the training, so that is huge downside. Unless you like to travel of course and have no husband/children.

Annie

Not sure about Philips but Bard generally does not direct hire their educators, they contract with staffing agencies for most of their nurses unless you are a sales rep or work at corporate.

Pharma is a very different world from medical device. In pharma you are typically calling on physicians and pharmacists so the skill sets are more interpersonal and more white collar focused. Pharma is known with the industry as a whole to intentionally hire attractive people and especially women.Within industry as a whole, pharma is very much so looked down upon as being less ethical and more carnally driven. You did not hear wrong.

[mariebabe, BSN, MSN]

@Flatline I can't seem to message anyone but Im interested in learning more about these positions.