Expanding the Role of Registered Nurses  

Sadie Kane, RN, BSN Completion Student

With the resumption of fall classes, our Crown nursing students may be thinking of the year ahead and anticipating the many nursing opportunities that will come their way when they graduate.  Will they choose to work in Med/Surg, ICU, or the float pool? Or, would they consider a more non-traditional role?  Today healthcare businesses are looking for registered nurses with solid assessment and application skills to work in their research and development departments.

I recently had the opportunity to work as a lead nurse on a research and development team making diabetic products and software tools.  In this role, I worked closely with a team of electrical, software, and manufacturing engineers, as well as other nurses.  Our most challenging project was the development of the company’s own blood glucose meter and the process of bringing that product to market.  Highlights of this process included studying market competition, traveling the country to interview experts, and holding patient interviews to identify how our product could stand out in a competitive market place.  We also met with vendors from around the world to assist in manufacturing. 

The role of the nurse was critical during these meetings in order to uphold patient safety standards.  Research studies surrounding the glucose meter were also completed as part of the FDA approval process.  Once FDA approval was granted, we developed other products to compliment the glucose meter, such as a device that sends a patient’s glucose readings from their meter across the phone line to their doctor. We also created a web portal where patients could log in, see their glucose trends and interact with a health professional to improve their glycemic control.  The final leg of the project was producing an instructional video with camera crews and actors to send to Medicare patients, walking them through their first time using the meter.  Nurses coached the actors on how to complete a blood glucose test properly and made sure the dramatization was presented in a way patients would understand.

Having the opportunity to work on such a project allowed me professional growth, as well as a new found appreciation for the nurse’s role as patient advocate.