- By Kasee Wiesen, DNP, APRN, FNP-C
In healthcare project management, nurses excel with their firsthand clinical experience and exceptional writing skills. Their ability to translate complex medical information and anticipate industry needs makes them valuable content leaders. By integrating nurses into writing teams, organizations can achieve improved SEO, content quality, and audience engagement.
Healthcare is constantly evolving due to medical advancements, supporting the need for strong health writers to interpret, translate, and disperse this information to the medical community and general population.
Among the numerous healthcare writers, nurses stand out for their unparalleled expertise, a result of their direct involvement in healthcare and the skills honed throughout their nursing careers. A nurse’s background prepares them to be strong leaders, fostering smoother project management in content teams.
Understanding the Value of Nurse Expertise in Project Management
Nurses bring extensive healthcare experience and knowledge, which makes them invaluable to content creation and project management. Their first-hand experience in patient care, education, and leadership, combined with their excellent writing skills, leads to high-quality work. Their ability to interpret and translate complicated medical jargon to the healthcare community and the general population is one of the critical traits separating them from other health professionals.
Nurses pay exquisite attention to detail, display strong time management skills, and are excellent communicators. Interprofessional communication and relationships are also vital in their nursing role, enhancing each nurse-led project.
Nurses’ first-hand experience with the healthcare system allows them to anticipate the needs and challenges in healthcare content. Their knowledge of “hot topics” in healthcare puts them one step ahead of other content writers.
Strategies for Integrating Nurses Into Your Content Team
Integrating nurses into content teams leads to effective project management, and there are a couple of methods used to recruit nurse writers.
- Contact nurse writing agencies like Write RN.
- Post job openings on freelance writing boards and job sites.
- Use social media sites like LinkedIn to recruit nurses to content teams for project management through networking or job postings.
Some tools can help make this integration seamless. Utilizing a nurse writing agency can help find highly qualified and appropriate nurses for the designated role. The writing agency often vets their nurse writers, ensuring the quality of work provided will be to the highest standard.
Project management tools, such as Clickup, Asana, and Trello, are not just tools; they are the backbone of efficient workflow organization. These tools will allow the content team to work asynchronously on assignments while tracking tasks, setting reminders, and making real-time edits or suggestions on projects, providing a seamless integration process.
Case Studies and Success Stories
Project management teams led by nurses support successful individualized outcomes for each healthcare company based on their needs. These outcomes include boosting search rankings, producing content quickly, optimizing SEO, and/or improving a company’s searchability and audience engagement on Google.
Evidence of these success stories is everywhere, including from the nurses on the Write RN team. For example, a travel nurse company had a blog for several years but was not seeing audience engagement or Google results. Project management teams comprised of nurses led to more content and enhanced their blog with an additional four new articles a week. As a result, the client started to see significant business growth.
Another instance of success was a healthcare company grappling with time constraints and a need for search engine optimization (SEO). With the intervention of a nurse-led content team, the company started creating engaging blog posts that adhered to SEO best practices, such as identifying the correct keywords, increasing internal links, and creating relevant content written by subject matter experts. These practices led to a marked improvement in search visibility, increased efficiency, and higher-quality blog posts.
Best Practices for Maintaining Efficiency and Quality
To maintain efficiency and quality in healthcare content, the business and nurse writer can take a couple of steps.
- Define your purpose. A clearly defined purpose for each assignment is crucial to maintaining high quality and efficiency in nurse-led project management. By clarifying the purpose, tone, and projected audience and providing a thorough writing brief, you can identify the best nurse for the project, leading to success in content creation.
- Pursue training and development. Nurses should also be encouraged to pursue ongoing training and development as writers. Membership groups, such as the Savvy Nurse Writer or the American Medical Writers Association, provide many resources to nurse writers, including tools to enhance project management.
- Engage in writing courses. Writing courses are another form of training for nurses to develop their skills, and the Savvy Nurse Writer Skills Course is one example of a program available to nurse writers. What is unique about this course is that it provides ten modules to perfect your writing skills, along with five writing assignments that an editor critiques and provides feedback on to enhance your writing.
Utilizing nurses in project management leads to high-quality healthcare content and successful project outcomes. Their nursing expertise and first-hand experience with healthcare place them one step ahead of other writers.
The evidence is clear. Consider hiring a nurse writer for your upcoming projects to enhance your healthcare content!
FAQs
What specific skills do nurse writers bring to project management?
- First-hand healthcare knowledge
- Experience in various settings, including patient care, education, and leadership
- Attention to detail
- Time management
- Strong communication
How can integrating nurse writers into content teams improve project outcomes?
Integrating nurse writers into content teams improves project outcomes by increasing the quality of the blog content and optimizing SEO. These improvements will lead to enhanced audience engagement and improved Google rankings.
What are the challenges of integrating nurse expertise into existing content teams, and how can they be overcome?
Challenges when integrating nurse expertise into existing content teams include conflict with other writers over the interpretation and translation of the information and a lack of understanding due to joining an existing project and not being present from the beginning. Strong communication, time management, and organizational skills are needed to overcome these challenges.
Can nurse writers lead projects if they lack traditional project management training?
Yes, nurses have the skills necessary to lead projects despite their lack of traditional project management experience. Their nursing experience has provided management skills, including time management, communication, delegation, and interprofessional skills.
What are the long-term benefits of having nurse writers on content marketing teams?
Having nurse writers on content teams fosters the following long-term benefits:
- Improved project outcomes
- Increased website traffic and audience engagement
- Satisfaction with project management
- Consistent delivery of high-quality content
These benefits will lead to higher sales and the success of healthcare companies.
References
Atchinson, J. (2023, February 22). Eight SEO best practices to increase organic site traffic in 2023. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2023/02/22/eight-seo-best-practices-to-increase-organic-site-traffic-in-2023/?sh=4c1cfe892eb0
Johnson, S. (2023, November 8). How project management software can improve your business. Business News Daily. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/15883-project-management-software.html
About the Author
Kasee Wiesen, DNP, APRN, FNP-C
Kasee is a practicing Family Nurse Practitioner who owns her own freelance writing business. Her background in nursing includes many areas including pediatrics, peri-op and emergency department. She has a great passion for education, at both the bedside and the classroom, and has been a nurse educator for more than 9 years.
