RN Clinical Sales Liaison ???

[nurse.j., ASN, BSN, MSN]

Hello everyone! I've been trying to search this board for some help, but can't seem to really find what I'm looking for. I am a nurse of 3 years, stared my career in a step-down/PCU unit and after about a year and a half, began my HH career as a RN Case Manager. I really have enjoyed HH, for the patient education/1:1 interaction and flexible schedule. However, the agency I have been working for is not paying me enough and the paperwork is endless. I'm also feeling like there is something else out there for me.

I have been applying to different positions that are similar to mine, however not in a HH setting. I have been moved on to the next level of interviewing for a RN Clinical Sales Liaison position with CVS (recently bought out Coram) infusion and a Patient Educator/CM with DaVita. The recruiter and manager explained that my role for CVS would be primarily going around to local hospitals that have accounts with us, educating patients and families that will be discharging home with infusion. My second role would be to assist the Sales Liasion (who is not Clinical) with maintaining and marketing referrals. They said the first 6 months is tough, but after the training and getting the job down, hours can be flexible (M-F & no weekends or holidays) and allow for work/life balance. It sounds like an exciting job with more career advancement and nice pay, benefits etc. But I worry I may get in over my head and be doing a lot of work at home too and I have two young ones (almost 6 & almost 1) & my fiancé (who also works full time).

The second job is an in office job with DaVita, making calls/coordination of care/case management & patient education over the phone. It's more set hours M-F, with a little flexibility, just as long as I clock my 40 hours a week. The job doesn't pay as much and possible could be an adjustment being in office all week long. However good benefits, work/life balance guarantee.

Does anyone have experience with either of these types of jobs and is it impossible to have a family/life/work balance with the liaison position?

Thank you! :)

[nutella, MSN, RN]

As far as liaison goes - it depends on how CVS is structured for liaisons and how much travel and business there is. For example :

I work with a liaison from an infusion company on and off to facilitate discharges. Although the schedule of the liaison is somewhat like 9-5 it can be hard to stick with it especially on Fridays and Mondays when the D/C rush is the worst and pat/family need teaching in the hospital prior to going home and the VNA needs to get set up. There is a lot of documentation, running after prescriptions, and so on - it is a lot about making the customer (hospital) happy.

Davita - I wonder if it is for their dialysis piece or the general healthcare part of the company.

[Libby1987]

From a HH admin position, I can back up Nutella's point of late Friday patient teaching. In some cases depending on all of the logistics, we won't accept a patient until the products are delivered to the hospital and patient/CG receive their first teach.

If I had your experience and was looking for family friendly hours, I would shoot for a clinical education or quality improvement position with a home health agency. With the pressure to reduce hospital admissions and meet 5 star criteria, that area is becoming increasingly more important. And in my opinion, is less limiting and a more marketable career position than teaching patients how to operate a CADD pump or perform IV push. And there's a rare need for weekend, evening or holiday hours.

[nurse.j., ASN, BSN, MSN]

Yeah I have a friend who is in the sales part (non clinical) and she said that she couldn't imagine doing her job with small children. I know everyone is different but I'm looking for work/life balance and I don't think the liaison position would give me that. The big money sounds nice but my family comes first.

I have a second interview with both companies this week. DaVita is very interested in me and I did some more research and the job sounds like something I'd enjoy, plus for room for advancement in the company. AND I can just go to work and come home. I have a friend who works for the company and she really loves it and says the company is great. We would also both get a referral bonus, should I be hired and accept the job. Doesn't sound too shabby to me. Will keep y'all posted. Thanks for your replies! :)

[Vanessa_RN, ADN, BSN, RN]

Just came across your post looking for info on a job with CVS. So which job did you end up going with? And how do you like it?

[nurse.j., ASN, BSN, MSN]

I actually ended up going back to hospital nursing. I'm a 0.6 on 12s and my managers are so flexible with our schedules. It's the best thing for my family right now and I'm trying to get my BSN and would not have time to do it working 5 days a week. Are you looking at doing something similar?

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Just came across your post looking for info on a job with CVS. So which job did you end up going with? And how do you like it?

For the past almost 3 years, until I left in February, I was a clinical liaison for a home infusion company that's one of CVS/Coram's big competitors. What is your background and what are your goals? I would think long and hard before getting into any position that is, in any way, considered "sales." When i started at my company, the position felt clinical and the focus was on education. Then the company completely switched gears, put all liaisons under a non-clinical regional sales director and turned the role into more sales than clinical. I hated it and that's why I got out. These companies are for profit and they care about money and numbers over patients any day of the week.

This is a story I told a lot when I was interviewing for new jobs last winter. I got a referral for a patient who I will call J. She had some sort of abdominal abscess and the team decided she should go home on IV antibiotics. I tried 3x to teach the parents how to administer zosyn (which can be administered in an elastomeric pump, which is very easy) and the parents every time said it was "too hard" and that they wouldn't be able to manage it. So the CM and I tabled the idea of her going home. Then I get a call the day before Thanksgiving from the CM saying "the team wants to send J home today on tigecycline." Not only did they want to send her home on tigecycline, which has no stability data and is a home mix drug, they wanted to send her home on a dose that wasn't a full vial so it couldn't be administered the usual home mix way (mini bag plus) and would require her parents to reconstitute the vial with normal saline, draw up a fractional dose of the vial, add that dose to a bag of normal saline, spike that bag and prime the tubing and then administer the medication using dial-a-flow tubing. This for parents who said they couldn't do an elastomeric pump- which literally involves opening a clamp. This was a ridiculously unsafe discharge plan and I blocked it. Had my boss, the sales guy, known that I had done this he wouldn't have seen it as me advocating for the best and safest thing for the patient. He would have seen it as lost revenue. Though as my closest nurse friend later pointed out, the child would have inevitably bounced right back to the hospital had she gone home. But that didn't matter. All my boss cared about was meeting the arbitrary numbers some corporate stooge decided the region should meet.

I have no plans to ever work in home infusion, for a for-profit company or for a national company again after this experience.