Frank Heasley, PhD, President and CEO of Medzilla.com,
says that he has never seen so many nurses posting for pharmaceutical
sales positions. According to Dr. Heasley, there have been days during
the last three or four months when half the nurses coming to the site
were looking for jobs as pharmaceutical sales representatives.
MedZilla, founded in 1994,
is a leading Internet recruitment and professional
community that targets jobseekers and HR
professionals in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals,
healthcare and science. Each month about
24,000 nurses visit MedZilla.com to post
resumes and conduct job searches. Overall,
Dr. Heasley says that more than one-quarter
of the nurses who come to the site monthly
are seeking pharmaceutical sales positions.
Today's growing clinical trial
activity, especially driven by human genome
discoveries, is opening pharmaceutical jobs
for clinical research associates (CRAs),
according to Jonathan W. Ward, chief strategy
and marketing officer, Cross Country, Inc.,
of Boca Raton, Fla. Cross Country's business
unit ClinForce services the pharmaceutical
space. Ward says that 50% of CRAs are former
nurses--nurses who have decided to get the
additional training and have made a career
change.
Pharmaceutical companies also
hire nurses to staff inbound telephone centers
and respond to consumer and clinician questions
about new drugs, according to Ward.
A trend?
It's hard to tell if it is
trend that nurses are leaving the profession
to go into the pharmaceutical industry,
says Cindy Price, senior public relations
specialist with the American Nurses Association
(ANA), Washington, D.C. While Price doesn't
know of statistics that point directly to
where nurses are going when they leave the
profession, recent surveys indicate that
nurses are becoming increasingly dissatisfied
with the profession-especially in the acute
care setting. "We know that there is
a looming shortage of nurses and spot shortages
around the country and that working conditions
are sited as being the primary reasons for
nurses leaving the profession. Issues like
mandatory overtime are driving them to other
jobs in fields where they don't necessarily
have to work a double shift or 20-hour day,"
Price says.
There might be some clues
that nurses are not only going into sales,
but also becoming educated as pharmacists.
Richard Penna, Pharm D, executive vice president
of the American Association of Colleges
of Pharmacy, says that he can't verify that
there is a trend, however, he says, "I
can tell you that the average age of the
classes that enter into pharmacy school
is increasing, which means that students
entering pharmacy school who have either
worked before in other fields or have degrees.
About 30 percent of our entering class has
degrees in other fields. Some could be in
nursing."
A number of factors are making
pharmacist careers more attractive, according
to Penna. Because there is a shortage of
pharmacists, salaries are going up. And
pharmacists today can work in areas where
direct patient care is a part of the job,
such as acute care hospitals, long-term
care, hospice and home care. "It would
certainly be logical that a nurse who has
direct patient care background would look
to pharmacy as a second career," Penna
says.
According to Penna, the number
of people interested in pharmacy as a career
increased 9 percent in 2001. It had been
going down in previous years.
Nationwide stats predict
trouble within the nursing profession
Nursing satisfaction surveys
indicate more nurses will want to change
careers. The ANA's Staffing Survey, February
6, 2001, showed that 75 percent of nurses
surveyed feel the quality of nursing care
at the facility in which they work has declined
over the past two years, while 56 percent
of nurses surveyed believe that the time
they have available for patient care has
decreased. In addition, more than 40 percent
of nurses surveyed said they would not feel
comfortable having a family member or someone
close to them be cared for in the facility
in which they work. And over 54 percent
of nurse respondents would not recommend
their profession to their children or their
friends.
Also according to the ANA:
More than 40 percent of hospital nurses
reported being dissatisfied with their jobs,
according to a study of nurses in five countries
by Dr. Linda Aiken and colleagues at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
Finally, one out of every
five working nurses is considering leaving
the patient care field for reasons other
than retirement within the next five years,
according to The Nurse Shortage: Perspectives
from Current Direct Care Nurses and Former
Direct Care Nurses, an April 2001 study
commissioned by the Federation of Nurses
and Health Professionals.
Voices from the field
In February 2002, MedZilla
queried nurses about whether they are considering
going into pharmaceutical sales or research
and many responded that they were, citing
the lack of respect they get as nurses from
doctors, patients and other nurses. They
also said the field lacks growth potential
for those who don't go on for advanced degrees.
John Pitts, RN, BSN, wants
to make the change to pharmaceutical sales.
"There is a good reason why we are
in a nursing shortage. I could literally
talk for hours are the problems nurses face,"
Pitts says. "In the five years I have
been a nurse, conditions have only gotten
worse."
Echoing the problems in nursing,
Chris Cavanaugh, RN, Orlando, Fla., a practicing
nurse in home care and infusion, has been
trying for six months to secure a job as
a nurse educator with a pharmaceutical company.
These nurses, she says, educate clients
about the products they buy from pharmaceutical
companies.
"I like the independence.
People respect you for what you are-that
you're a registered nurse. You're really
very autonomous to make your own hours and
schedule," she says. "Nursing
seems to be a thankless profession. It blows
my mind that as a registered nurse, I can
make maybe $23 an hour to do my job, and
you go into sales or even as a clinical
education person, you're making $60,000
to $80,000 a year to start, plus bonuses.
[Working in pharmaceuticals allows you to]
use your skills and be treated as a professional
instead of a workhorse," Cavanaugh
says.
Sandi Bratton, RN, Charlotte,
NC, has found the competition for jobs in
the pharmaceutical industry to be fierce.
She wants a job in pharmaceutical sales
but so far has been told that she lacks
sales experience. Still, she continues to
pursue her desire for a new career. "Being
a nurse working on the floor you have 10
to 12 patients and your license is really
on the line. They expect too much for you
and when something happens you're found
liable. This [pharmaceutical sales] is a
better opportunity," Bratton says.
Ward says that one way for
nurses to enhance their chances for securing
a job with a pharmaceutical company is to
go with a company like ClinForce. The nurse
he says "would have an advantage because
if we put together a program that's designed
to help nurses make the transition from
being a nurse to a clinical research associate
that's much easier than if nurses try to
contact pharmaceutical companies on their
own without any experience, etc. One of
the benefits of working through us is that
the pharmaceutical companies look to ClinForce
as having an expertise in staffing people
for such jobs. It would be different than
hiring someone off the street."
Brian Nugent, RN, successfully
made the change and has been in the pharmaceutical
research field for three years. A nurse
for 8 years, Nugent says that he was happy
to leave the tension and almost adversarial
relationship with patients. "I was
looking for change and advancement. In nursing
you can advance so far," he says. "[The
job now] is more of a 9-to-5 job. The field
is a growth field. You have a wonderful
opportunity for advancement. You get a lot
of respect from the people around you. In
the future, I can become a manager of a
department or director. I think nurses are
ideal for these positions, especially those
who have a baccalaureate degrees."
Finding the pulse of
nurse candidates
"Our candidates represent
the pulse of the job market," Dr. Heasley
says. "We're hearing discontent from
nurses and one logical place for them to
go is in pharmaceutical sales and other
areas in the industry. We believe this is
a trend-especially given the attention that
the pharmaceutical industry has drummed
up in recent months to attract good candidates."
