This Nurse Coaches Nurses Looking To Enter Into The Biopharmaceutical Industry - Ep. 82

Dr. Latora has over 26 years of Nursing experience. She received her Bachelor's of Science in Nursing from Grambling State University. Then went on to earn two additional degrees from Grambling; a Bachelor's of Arts in Sociology and Masters of Public Administration (specialization Health Administration). Dr. Latora found her passion in healthcare for improving the lives of others by using her healthcare knowledge to also serve in the community. To further her education journey she earned her Ph.D. in Public Health (specialization Community Education and Health Promotion), from Walden University. Dr. Latora is the founder of ECLIPSE Health Consultants LLC. Where she coaches Nurses and other Allied Health professionals seeking to transition into the biopharmaceutical industry.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Ep 82 2nd Edit

Naseema McElroy: [00:00:00] All right, Nurses on Fire. We have the honor of having Dr. Latora Grant Scott join us, and she has a phenomenal story, and she has a phenomenal career, which I want you guys to learn more about because I really think once you hear about it, you're going to want to get into it. So without further ado, Dr. Latora, go ahead and introduce yourself.

Dr Latora: [00:00:24] Thank you. Thank you. First of all, let me say thank you so much for having me on your podcast. I really appreciate it. And I'm honored and I am Dr. Latore Grant Scott and people just call me Lator except for my mom. She calls me Dr. Scott, which is very weird, but.

That's mother's for you? I've been a registered nurse for 26 years. I actually graduated from Grambling state university in Louisiana. I'm from Louisiana. So I received my BSN in  ay of 1994. So yes, I'm 5 0 !  I also have a bachelor's of arts in sociology from Grambling and I have a master's of public administration from Grambling and health service administration.

And I have a PhD in public health from Walden university, but the specialty community education and health promotion. So my nursing journey was very interesting how I got into nursing.  The end of my junior year in high school A friend of mine went to a party. And what we think happened, we still don't know exactly tells what we think happened is someone will put something in her drink and she ended up having what they called a it's a chemical induced, like a toxic brain injury from it.

And she ended up in a hospital and where this happened was a small town in Louisiana. Comparatively small to, you know, a small town in Louisiana. And I was in the city in Shreveport, which just small compared to Dallas, but she had to come to the hospital in Shreveport because that's where the specialty hospital was for brain injury.

Right. So, but her mother was in this small town. Me and my mother were in Shreveport. And so my mother would go and check on her and bring me, cause it was my friend because her mother couldn't be there every day. And so we would go and check on her and I, every day we'll go and check on her quite frequently.

And from this brain injury, she could not talk. she basically reverted back to a child. She was like in a coma. Then she was out of the coma. She could open her eyes, but she couldn't talk. She couldn't feed herself. She couldn't watch anything. And so the nurses would just have me engaged with her and they would let me help.

Them with moving her legs around and doing things with her, just in case there was a familiar face that she wouldn't feel so firighteced and everything. And I enjoyed it. I didn't, I wasn't afraid.  I was that kid that saw a dog heard I was bandaging them up. So, you know, it didn't bother me.

None of it bothered me and I helped the nurses. And one day I came to see her and I walked in her room and she hadn't spoken. She hadn't done anything to anybody hadn't really responded to anybody. And I walked in her room and she turned her head and she's like, Hey, the Torah. And I was done. I was, that was it for me.

I was, I was a nurse from that moment, from that moment on her nursing staff was like, she has that in months and she just looked at me like, She had been talking to me the whole time and  I was just, that was it for me. So that's how I actually decided to make to major in nursing was from that event.

And I went on to nursing school. I said, got my BSN. And during nursing school, I actually worked as a nurse tech. And so that's kind of how I had my money for books and gas and different things. I actually worked as a nurse tech on a med surg floor, but it was a med surg floor that actually had peritoneal dialysis.

 I learned peritoneal dialysis as a nurse tech and could do thosethings to start IVs. So out of before getting out of nursing school, I was able to do those tactical things and I. Graduate school went to work on that floor. And because I had been there for like two or three years already, very quickly, I became a nursing supervisor and then I went from there to, a nurse manager.

And then. I decided that's when I decided to go back to school to get my master's and I got my master's in public administration with a specialty in health service administration. And I was, at the time I had transitioned, I was actually the manager over infection control and employee health by that point.

So I was like, okay, I can do this. And I did. And that's how my public health piece started. And so from there, I went to school, had a post-graduate internship at a insurance company in Kansas city. Missouri went up to interview with them and it was the most it's, I don't know people's fight, but it was always a God kind of thing.

So I sent in a resume for this internship. The guy called me to Kansas city. They flew me to Kansas city to go in for the internship. I go and I sit down and he tells me we've never had anyone from an HBC before. I mean, he's telling me this, right? We've never had anyone from HBCU before. And I'll be perfectly honest with you.

I'd never would have even looked at your resume if you hadn't been a nurse. And my wife is the nurse. And he said, I know he's I never would have looked at your resume. And I mean, just out the gate, right. I was like, Oh, okay. I said, well, thank you for the opportunity. You know, for bringing me in.

Naseema McElroy: [00:05:43] I said, what made

Dr Latora: [00:05:44] your wife asked you to interview me?

He said, she looked at your resume. She saw that you were a nurse. She saw that you actually had dual bachelor's degrees. Like you had double degrees while you were in school. And she said, this girl is smart. If she did that in nursing school, you need to at least talk to her. He says, I'm going to be perfectly honest.

My wife hadn't saw your resume. I wouldn't have even brought you in. He said, but I'll give you a tour. And you know, the things I was like, okay, you know, and he said, why do you want this internship? And I told him what my interests were. So by the end of the day, you know, Didn't expect to get the internship because man came out the box saying this is without what we're going to do.

But by the time I left that day, he said, you know what? He said the internship program that we normally have, he said, I don't know if that's a good fit for you. He said, but I like you, he saying you are pretty smart. He said, so we're going to create an interim position for you and see what happens.

I said, what do you mean? And he said, you're not going to have to go through the program that everybody else goes through. He said, you're going to actually be placed in a department and you'll be over a particular project. And you got to work with this director and you get used to it. You can stay here for a year on this internship and then we'll see what happens after that, right. Was like, Okay. What are we talking about money wise

so I told her what I was making, and he was like, Oh, no, we can beat that. Yeah, because it was the insurance company. He's like, yeah. He said, he's only pay to move you up here because I was still living in Louisiana. Right. This is in Kansas city, Missouri. He said, we're going to pay to move you up here. I was a singel woman 24. I wasn't married just out of school. I really have nothing to move with my car.

He said, he said, we going to help you. You're going to hire someone to find you an apartment. We're going to help you find the apartment we're going to pay for the first month rent. We're going to get you up here. We're going to bring you up here. He said, if you decide you want to come, I still send the contract down to me.

You know, I need to discuss it with my family, which is just my mother, my mother single mother. And this is why I like talking about my, with my family and we'll decide. And so I said, you know, why not? Let's try it. You know, something different. And I moved to Kansas city. They moved me. Apartment furniture, everything moved me to Kansas city, moved my car.

They actually paid to have my car moved up there. And so I went to Kansas city, Missouri, and started working at this insurance company. And I worked with the director of government affairs. And so my, this was during the Clinton era. So I told you guys i'm 50, okay. This was during the Clinton era. And he had just find the first children's.

You know, the chips program, the very first one. And so our company had a contract when they didn't have it yet, they had a RFP or a request for proposal. So they had to respond to this request for proposal and where Kansas city is Kansas city. One side of the street in Missouri, one side is Kansas, right?

So they had to respond to both RFPs separately. So my project. You know, even though I was a paid intern, but I was an intern. So my project was to respond to these two requests for proposals for Kansas and Missouri, and to write them. And they'll go defend them at the state capitals.  Did not know this going in, but that was, that ended up being my job and I loved it.

And at the time I didn't have mommy brain and I actually could read stuff and actually remember it where it was on the page. I can't do that anymore, but like literally I could read the document and tell them it's on page 552 down by two paragraphs. Okay. At that time. And so they were. Like okay. It's yours.

And I successfully wrote the request for proposal for both of those States and we successfully got the contract for both of those things. So that was my first run in hospital nursing position. Food around in Kansas city fell in love and got married.

Got married to my son's father and did not stay because they actually offered me a position at the company after I got them, both of the contracts. Right. And my husband at the time decided that he wanted to move to Atlanta to go to seminaries, though. We went off to Atlanta. So that was my first I've experienced none clinical and it's been a wild ride.

It's like I said, I've been in those 26 years. I can go on and on and on forever. But fast forward some years I became a transplant nurse would move to Dallas and that was after my son was born December, 2002. We moved January, 2003 for me to become a transplant coordinator and heart and lung transplant coordinator.

And I did that. Loved it, got into the cardiovascular space. Love, love the love that got to see several heart transplants. A lung transplant actually in the R in the or room. So that was awesome. Did that for awhile and then started actually working on the, so working as a congestive heart failure coordinator.

So patients there either were too well for transplant or for some reason they didn't qualify for transplant, but they still needed heart failure management. So while I was doing that, that's when I went back to school to get my PhD while I was working with the baby, with the child. So it took me a while to finish, but I finished.

Naseema McElroy: [00:11:27] But what made you go do your PhD?

Dr Latora: [00:11:29] Honestly, what made me go do my PhD was that I, I was married at the time. My husband happened to be a minister. And so I did a lot of Social groups and community things with the churches and especially a lot of rural black churches. And I decided that I needed my PhD to be able to help them write for grants.

I know now that you don't necessarily need that, but I was like, you know, that will fill having those for dentures. So when I initially went back to get my PhD, had nothing to do with my actual career, it was, I felt like I could help people. In the, in the community. And so I went back and got my PhD and I did it in public health, all purpose, why you didn't get it in nursing?

I knew what I was doing. Like I wanted it to be in public health and especially because they offer the community education, health promotion specialty. So I decided to get it in that. And at the time my dissertation was I did it on health literacy. So it was the, the provider's perception of health literacy and how that impacts impacts 30 day heart failure, readmission rates, because I was working at heartbreak clinic.

I had eight database, right? So that, that was not my interest was health literacy period. Would you happen? And you shut down or you have to pick a topic. And so that's what my dissertation was on. And I successfully definitive in November of 2012. And.  That was it for the PhD journey. And I worked at in Dallas at advanced heart and lung disease center clinic.

And so took care of heart failure, patients, pulmonary hypertension, patients, interstitial lung disease patients. And so. Transitioning, how did I get into pharma? Right. So working as a heart failure coordinator, well, not just heart fairs and advanced heart and lung disease coordinator, taking care of these patients, the sales reps would come in and out of the hospital, right.

They come in and out of hospital, especially for the pulmonary hypertension meds. So one has to sign for them. The doctor's like I'm busy, let Latora sign she's here all the time. I was the RN supervisor by that point for the center and they like, let let's hold it for them. So the reps started talking to me and having conversations with me and I was asked to be a speaker.

I was asked to be a nurse speaker for, and so that was my first step into industry. I was still working my job and they asked me to be a nurse speaker, which meant that I would be trained by the company to go and provide, you know, how nurses are invited to. These speaker programs where you go have dinner, right.

Those speakers there's work somewhere. So yeah, they worked, I work and was that I became that person where I would have these speaker programs. Some of them were branded and some of them were disease state for the pulmonary hypertension companies. And I got contracted with, and I had my. Eclipse self consultants, LLC, be so that I could contract with them outside of the hospital.

So that's how my company actually started. And I contracted with all three companies. I did not just stick with one and they would have them send me out to do talks. And you get paid for it. And it was just like, it's just like doing in-services that you normally do on the floor, except they pay you and they pay you fairly well for like an hour or 30 minutes at a time, just to spare somebody to stick, to hear you talking and you get paid for training.

So my first experience with  industry was, they were like, okay, you decided you're going to be be a speaker for us. We have training and our training is going to be in New York. And so they flew me to New York. They flew me to New York hotel, paid for limo, pick me up from the house to take me to the airport in Dallas, pick me up from Dallas and take me to the hotel paid for the training for the three days I was there.

Flew me back. That was my first industry experience. Then the next time I got trained, I went to San Diego. It just there's various places. That's where you have to go to train. So I was like, I can do this. Sure. I can do this. So that was my first experience into. Pharma and my first experience and to actually even knowing that that part of it existed, because I,  you know, account of what sales reps do, but you don't really know that there's other pieces of that has to do with it.

So , my big transition into followers. So by this time I have my PhD we are in a, we're actually in a study Mark. Clinic was in a study for a drug company that I ended up working with. And we had just gotten the last patient in a world in this early access program. And they got their drug approved.

The day that I enrolled the last patient, they got their drug approved. So now the drug is commercially available. And so once the drug becomes commercially available, you have to transition in an EAP program. You have to transition all the patients off of study drug to actual commercial. Because it's commercially available.

So someone from the company came from their access program. We just, she was a nurse working in their access program. You came to help me transition all these patients over. And didn't know how long it was gonna take. Didn't know what this, there had, had never happened to me before. And she was, we were just talking one day and she goes, she said, your name is on the study as a sub PI.

I was like, yeah, the doctors decided to make me a sub PI because I'm here every day. I'm the one that they know is here Monday through Friday.

Naseema McElroy: [00:17:18] Wait, where are you working at your other job during this time?

Dr Latora: [00:17:21] I was working, yeah, as a coordinator at advanced heart and lung disease center. So I was working there and then doing the talking was a side hustle, but I was still working as advanced heart and lung disease center coordinator.

And so she was there getting the pages transitioned over and she was like, you have a PhD and you're, you're working as RN coordinator. I was like, yeah, I love my,

I love my job. I love my job. I the patients. I was like the lead person in there. I got to work with all of the other hospitals in the hospital system and train their nurses on PAs. That was like my baby. I helped them start their program. I was looking at her like, what are you talking about? Of course, I was still here.

I love it. I love this. And she said, you never thought about. Working in industry. And I said, well, I do, I'm a speaker for all three of the drug companies. You know, I was proud. I was like, I'm a speaker for all three of the drug companies. I was like, I'm one of their top speakers. I have programs all the time.

And she was like, yeah, that's nice but was like, have you ever thought about actually working. For one of the companies. And I said, well, you know, I'm not a sales person. That's just not my personality. You know, I was like, I'm not a salesperson and all that to travel and not have a child. and she's like, well, Think about it because I think you'd be really good.

And I was like, nah, it's just a whole year passed by. They basically offered me a job. I gave it to another person. So one of my friends was working on the floor and she, I knew that she was ready to leave and she was looking for something else. And she was actually the nurse supervisor for our special floor, I actually walked over, handed her the lady's name and said, call her, they will hire you out.

You talk to you up. So I've been kind of mentoring people. And I was like, this is what you say, this is what you do. So she went into industry a whole year before me a year later, I'm going through a divorce and I'm like, you know what, it's time I need to change. Opportunity comes back up when I'm working with the lady from the company getting the patients transition over, she said, well, think about it. And I said, okay, no. And then I'm driving home one day from work. And she calls me on the phone and she said, I need you to send me your resume tonight. She said, do you have a resume or CV?

And I said, I always keep a resume. I mean, I always have a resume. I said, I'm finally updated or whatever. She's like, okay. Send it to me, she said, do you have like any of the speaking that you've done, all that stuff on there, you have it in a CV format. And I said, no, but I can, I can get it. I said, what do you need it for?

I'm thinking that they want me to come and speak. Right. I was like, sure, I'll come talk top for you guys. And so she takes my resume and she actually takes it to a hiring manager and they're looking for a medical science liaison. Which is another job in the biopharma industry. And she gives my resume to him and said, you need to talk to her.

I think she would be great. I didn't, I mean, I knew medical science liaisons because they're the ones that train speakers to speak, but that's all I knew that they did. I didn't know what else they did. The guy called me. I thought it was a practical joke. He call me cause he called me on my day off and I answered the phone and he was like, may I speak with Dr. Scott? And I just told you at the beginning nobody calls me Dr. Scott with my mom.

I thought it was one of my cousins. Cause they do that. I was like, who is this? I be literally on the phone. Who is this? And he's like Dr. Scott. I was like, yes. Who is this? And he's like, Oh, I'm so sorry. And I said, but no one calls me that. So he was just laughing and he was really cool. And she was like, well, I got your resume.

He told me who it was from. He said she worked with you. And he said, she said that she saw you in a really stressful situation and you were just very calm and you kind of handle everything. And he thought she would be, you be a good fit for our team. And I was like, Oh, okay, well, I don't even know what was, how you remember to sit scenario that she had told him about.

It was just a day, I guess I was just doing what I do. And they flew me to California for the interview, the interview took all day. Before I flew to California, I had to do four phone interviews. Then they flew me to California and the interview started at eight in the morning. I finished at 5:30 in the afternoon.

I interviewed with seven people. And I had to do a presentation in the middle of the day. So that, that was every person I interact with people in the morning that I had to actually present to people people that were in the room. And then I didn't realize that there were people on the phone they were like sending me out to the team and answer questions. And then I interviewed for the rest of the evening. And so that was an all day thing. I didn't hear back from them. So I just like, okay, well it's a fun, you know, it got to fly to California. It was, that was fun. And I was actually contacted by a nurse that was working at that company and say, well, we were looking for nurse speakers.

We would at least be a speaker for us. I was like, okay. So I can do that. Cause I was thinking that this had fell off. I was literally. In Austin at training to be a nurse speaker for them. When the hiring manager called me and he goes, did you accept the offer? And I was like, what offer offer? And he was like, I haven't heard from you in two weeks.

You did you not accept the offer? And I said, I didn't, I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't get an offer. I think get an offer. And he's like, Yeah, you did. I said, no, no one called me. I didn't get it. He said, okay, I'll call you back. And he just hung up. Okay. I'll call you back. So I'm thinking he must think he must be talking about this nurse speaker thing, right.

He calls me back and he goes, you haven't applied for the job. I had never applied for the job.

Naseema McElroy: [00:23:33] How did they fly you across the country, put you up,  interview you with all the people and you don't have an application? That sounds real funny.

Dr Latora: [00:23:45] He had hand giving my resume to everybody.  I had never gone in the system had never applied for the job. So HR was like, we don't have this person. We don't know who he talking about. So while he was on the phone for me, I actually had to go in and apply for the job. Who does that.

Naseema McElroy: [00:24:03] That's actually happened to me before. Like I've gotten a job that I hadn't applied for and I had to go in the back end, but they they're flying me across the world until they found out.

Dr Latora: [00:24:12] And I told him, I said, well, look, I said, you know, I'm actually in training for your company right now, like this weekend. And you know, they pay you for that . I mean a nice amount of money. And I said, so is that a conflict of interest? He said, well, we haven't hired you yet. He said, I'll never let nobody mess your money. He said, finish your training.

If I finish your training, he said, and then in two weeks, when we send you this real offer, you tell them you can't speak.  So I, that was five years ago. I entered as a medical science liaison and that role is under medical affairs. And so a lot of times when nurses enter industry, they're either sales reps, or they are clinical consultants, our clinical nurse educators, and a lot of time that's under the commercial side.

So the commercial side are the people that you see out in the hospitals. Most of the time they're pushing the drug or the appeals or whatever. The medical side is a whole nother animal. It's the research side. If it's a drug or if it's a devicee has being developed. It's the scientific research side and the data that's being produced to support why the FDA approved this device, drug, whatever.

And so the job of the medical science liaison is to be the face of the medical team in the field. And we actually go out like sales reps to different hospitals, different meet with different providers, but the difference is. We actually make a promise with them and they know that we're  coming usually to answer a question, they have a question about the drug and  I'm not selling anything. And I could actually talk about the product or the drug off label or how they're using it in Europe or Ecuador or wherever else in the world that they're using the drug.

Whereas on the commercial side, you can only talk about what's approved in the PTI for the U S and so. There's not a lot of nurses  in the medical team is usually a lot of pharm Ds, they know about this. They go into industry straight out of school pharmacy school, straight into being a medical science liaison, never working in clinical at all, straight in industry.

I was working with people that had been medical science liaisons for 10, 15 years. And they were like 10, 15 years younger than me. Cause they went straight from college, straight into industry. And I was just thinking about maybe the whole time I was there the five years I was there. It was maybe two or three nurses that we were asking medical science liaisons, the others were either  nurse educators or sales rep.

Naseema McElroy: [00:26:51] So your position as a nurse, like as opposed to people that just came out of school and went straight into it, like, what was your, your role is different.

Dr Latora: [00:26:59] So from the, from a medical science liaison part, if you have a, if you're coming out of school with a pharm D so because they have been doing research because they have to do a co intern where they do research. And so they come out and they're doing the exact same thing that I'm doing. Right. For a nurse for medical science liaison piece, they're going to want you to have a DNP or be a nurse practitioner in a specific therapeutic area.

So there are some medical science liaison. They don't have doctors that are nurse practitioners.

Naseema McElroy: [00:27:32] But so  what people with pharm, DS can come straight out of school and go to it. Can a nurse practitioner come into it without clinical experience?

Dr Latora: [00:27:41] Not from the medical side. Now you can go into industry. Yes. Going into industry. Yes, you can. Especially for like the nursing education roles or for the sales rep role, there are a lot of different roles in industry that a nurse can do that have nothing to do with the medical side, the medical side, they're looking for you to have research and scientific experience.

Usually smaller companies sometimes will require you to have a PhD or a DNP. You can just, you know, you can have the nursing experience in that therapeutic area, but they want you to have some clinical experience, but coming straight out of school as a nurse, into industry for like a device company or a sales company, as someone that's actually selling the product, You just got to know how to, to, to interview and to get in that you don't have to have experienced clinical experience thinking about myself.

Naseema McElroy: [00:28:35] I'm thinking selfishly of course, because I'm a nurse with 10 years of experience. I'm a nurse practitioner, but I don't, I've never practiced as a nurse practitioner, but I have clinical experience from nursing and I have my research experience from my master's degree, but I never practiced as a nurse practitioner, which I don't think really matters.

Dr Latora: [00:28:53] It depends on, for instance, you were going to go and work for a a medical company that for oxygen therapy.  You done the teaching before you're able to do that. If there was a job for us, like clinical consulting, nursing to go and train patients how to use their equipment, you would just have to learn that particular equipment, but you know what oxygen does.

Naseema McElroy: [00:29:20] Yeah. But you have to learn that anyway, because it's proprietary to the company. Right. Because that's what you're teaching. Right? Exactly.

Dr Latora: [00:29:28] That will be part of your orientation. So definitely, I mean, I actually have a friend. Again, I've been doing this for, I have a friend who was in nursing school, but she was working as a medical assistant. Right. She was able to leave her job. We read it her resume and she became a rep for a device company where she could go in and teach patients how to use this equipment. She hadn't finished nursing school at all. She would have been a medical assistant and they hired her. So it was, she had clinical experience with that particular patient population.

She interviewed well. She knew that particular equipment, because she had been using it and the reps have been coming in and talking to her in the doctor's office. So they knew she knew it and they hired her. So it was, it's a matter of knowing which positions are open to you and how to go about talking to people to get that.

And that's a lot of what I do. I look at your resume and say, okay, you need to highlight this and to talk about this project. And this matches with that. And you can. Just what they're looking for and kind of how you can match up what you do, because a lot of times, but even just like for case management positions, nurses will say, well, I've never been a case manager, you a case manager every day, as nurse case manager. But you do that every single day. Trust me. And so you just have to know how to write your resume to show. But I've been a nurse for 20 years. I have 20 years of case management experience. Believe it, you do that every day. So you just have to know how to highlight. And I think a lot of times we, we kind of downplay what we do, because it's just, it's just what we do. And you don't think about that

Naseema McElroy: [00:31:14] because our job is so all encompassing. We're just like, We forget all the little pieces that go into our jobs, where teachers were waitresses were managers where everything, you know, we run the hospital, you know, so we do so much exactly, exactly. I mean, surgery assistance, you know, all those things, but Dr. Latora.

I just want to step back a little bit. And so people hear your story and just. There'll be like, wow. I mean, like, she has so much experience, like, do I have to have all of this experience as a nurse in order to go into this role? Let's talk about that first. Like I know you said that, like, if you have a PhD or NP, you can go in, but like what about a nurse that wants to leave the bedside?

We talked about it briefly and just in this last little segment, but like what would it take for her to go or him to go into this role?

Dr Latora: [00:32:10] So. There are various roles in pharma, right? In the medical science liaison role. That's a different animal. And it's hard to get those positions because like I said, most of them are for Pharm Ds

so it's very hard to get those positions and it's, and it's usually harder for nurses because they don't have a lot of nurses. So nurses, they're usually looking for you to have a DNP or NP for the medical affairs side, but you can get into industry. Especially, if you're not going to the huge company you gotta start at a small company, you can get into industry.

Without a PhD or without an MSn, actually the nurse that Iwas telling you about. So the first industry position that I was offered was as a clinical nurse educator for one of the pulmonary hypertension medications. I knew that this nurse knew the drug because she did. That's what she did every day.

She worked on the pulmonary hypertension floor, she started these patients on this med. That's what she did. 12 hours shifts three, you know, every day, hours time. That's what she did and going out and teaching the patient how to hook these, this machine because they actually use the process cycling at home.

They use these drugs at home. It's the same drug that's in the hospital. You're just teaching them how to do it at home. And you do discharge teaching with them when they leave the hospital with the machine. Anyway. So I knew that she could do this job. So I went over and I said, look, this is, this is what they're, they're needing.

This is what they're offering. It does require travel. Does this work with your life? That's the thing too. You know, some of the jobs require travel. Does this work with your life? And she was like, well, I don't know if I can do this. Yeah, you can. Could you do it every day? You probably did three of them today.

You know, you do it every day. It's just going into the patient's home. And so. Fast forward. They hired her. She had a BSN. She had finished her mash and then she had a BSN. They hired her and she was offered. She went on to get her MSN later, but  you don't need that. If you are working, especially if you're working in that specialty area, you worked with those patients before they, they honor that a lot more than they do the degree, because you actually know those patients know the patients, you know, that drug, you know, how they're going to react. And so they know that you can handle these patients because you've been dealing with them. So  for those jobs, you don't need that degree. There's reimbursement specialists which is something that. The best case management nurse, case management. And it's an industry with reimbursement specialists.

It's specifically just for that one product or that one drug. You're trying to make sure that the patients can have access to bad product or bad drug. And so it's not like you're trying to. It's no, you're trying to get, well, try this and fail. No, you're trying to get them on your therapy. Right? So I'm coming to work with you as the face of the company to help you get my patient on this drug, where if I worked for the company, don't you think I'm gonna do everything I can.

Yeah, obviously, yeah. To get that patient on the drug. So  they hire nurses that  help walk through the appeals process for insurance. So that's one job for nurses, the actual patient teaching, depending on the therapy, that's the job. They have nurses that work as sales rep that actually are selling the product or the drug.

So it just depends. The medical side of it is like research and in smaller companies, I have met some Companies are especially device companies where the nurses have BSN, especially the device companies, device companies like the Hill-Rom beds. People don't think about that.  That's considered industry.

Hill-Rom beds when they first came out the reps would come to show you that the bed in the hospital, how it works. Those a lot of those people, our nurses, our respiratory therapists, especially some of the, like the oxygen companies, those people are respiratory therapists. Okay. So it's stuff that you would normally do in the hospital is just on the industry side and you go in and teach people  how use the products. The diabetes companies for the glucose monitors. One of my that I go to church with she's nurse educator, she left to go work for a diabetes company, and that's what she did. They go out and talk and it wasn't for patients. He would go out and talk to doctors in different primary care physicians. This is the new glucometer, teach their staff. 

Naseema McElroy: [00:36:55] I love it. I love it. And I just love how it's so many different areas you can be in. You can be in the pharmaceutical side. You can be on the device side, like there's so many different things. And then there's the research side and then there's the sale side. And then there's the education piece. Oh my God.

Like  I never knew it was so many opportunities, but then again, These are people that I do interact with, but never even thought about it as a career. And I think like right now, like I said, a lot of nurses are reaching out to me, especially with COVID and being tired and being burnt out. Like, what are other areas I can go into, but also not even like with burnout, like I just feel like that's the beauty of nursing is that.

There are so many ways that there's so many areas that you can work in. So like, why not explore? So I love that this opportunity is available and you've touched on this briefly, but I want you to share some of the parks that you get from working with these companies that are things that you would never experience working bedside.

I know you talked about the common, you touched on the compensation and being paid to travel into Get education, but can you talk about like how the compensation compares to like when you were working? Like in more clinical setting. Yes.

Dr Latora: [00:38:09] It's actually like having your own consulting business, but you're, you're guaranteed a check from a company because you own your own time.  Like I'm doing this interview with do now. I've been at work today and I've been at work in this space. You see me in, I just scheduled all my appointments before today, before this time and said, I'm not seeing anybody in the afternoon via zoom. And so I can do this. So you own your day.

So that's one. Major perks. I make my schedule, unless there's something that's going on with the company that I have, that, you know, there's a mandatory, which doesn't happen often, you make your own schedule. So that's number one, pre COVID things are looking a little different. Now we're trying to figure out what, how it looks for pre COVID.

Like the last five years have been amazing as far as you, cause you like conferences that you see that nurses go to conference. So ATS or the our chest conference or the American heart failure association conference that you would just normally pay to go to. Right? Well, in industry, they pay you to go to the conference, cover your hotel, cover your flight, all your meals, while you're there, conference registration, and your job that week is to go and sit in on the sessions.

And listen and learn, bring back any information that's relevant to the company. If it wasn't you just say this session is not relevant to the company and that's your work with that week. So I went to my first work trip when I first joined industry five years ago. My first work trip was to Montreal, Canada. And they let me bring my son because it was my first work trip. So they flew us to Canada for a week. So I stayed in a hotel for a week that they paid for, anything I ate. Any transportations we did. All of that is covered. You go and you sit into the session. So I got to learn about stuff I'm interested in any way. And then you write up a summary at the end of the week. That was my work week. That's your job from a medical science liaison part. Okay. We have a booth.

You have to go, man. The booth. People come by and ask you questions. And I'm just talking like I'm doing now. They come in and ask some questions about the drug or about the science or about what studies we're doing this, or can you come and meet with me? And I got appointments like that. When you get back to the States, can you go meet with Dr. Smith? Because he's interested in doing studies about whatever. And so then when I get back home, my job is to fly. So I'm in Dallas, DFW area for my job and I covered. All of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi. That was my territory. So when I get back home, I'm home fly to Mississippi to talk to Dr. Smith and whoever didn't fly back into our drive in the DFW area, they pay you for all of that. And depending on the company, you get a company car. So some of like I'm saying some of the people that have been in industry that I've met that had been in industry for straight out of school, never had a car note ever in their life.

Because every company they work with gave them a company car. So usually the industry, they give you a company car, they give you a car stipend to pay the car note, you get a gas card or you get reimbursed for gas, they pay for your internet. So I, now my home internet, because I'm working from home and I have a home office, they pay you so much a month for your home internet.

They gave you the equipment that you work with, they cover your gas mileage. If you have to go, if you buy a paper, like find my printer paper, or I have to buy pens, or how about all of that is reimbursable because I'm working from my house. Okay. And then the actual salary. Cause that's all not, that's not your salary.

That's just perks, your salary. When I first left the hospital and I had been, at that time, I had been a nurse with a minimum of 26 years now left the hospital five years ago. So I have been a nurse 21 years. Okay. So I was making nice money, right. When I left to go into industry. And they sent me my contract. I thought it wasn't real. I was like, they sent this to the wrong person. It was like two and a half times what I was making, base salary.

Naseema McElroy: [00:42:55] Wow. That's your base? That's your base without all of those extra incentives

Dr Latora: [00:43:01] oh, wow. Not the insurance base salary and then an industry where a lot of times people don't know with industry, you actually get stock options in the company that you join automatically.

So at the end of the year, let me tell you the story. So when I was thinking, negotiate my salary, right? My manager called me. He said, well, what do you make now? I've told him what I made. She said, Okay. What is your yearly bonus? He said, what is your yearly bonus? And I was like, what did I say? You know, we get merit, raises whatever he said, no, no, no.

What is your, what is your bonus at the end of the year? Every year? Don't they give y'all a bonus at the end of the year. I it's like they give us like gift cards. So he was like, no, no, no, no, no. So he said, well, he said, aren't you a speaker, a nurse speaker for difficult. I say, yeah, he said, how much money have you made from the side?

But he had me tell them that that was part of my salary. And I added that to what I was asking, making it possible. And they doubled that. Is what I'm saying, because he said, you cannot tell them what you make as a base. Cause they're going to low-ball you? He said, this is what this position is worth. He said, you have a PhD and you don't take any less than this.

So saying. And people can Google this. You Google what an MSL makes. Okay. An average salary for an MSL is $120,000 coming out the gate. So fresh out of school, pharm D never worked anywhere.  We have no idea that these physicians actually even exist  a nurse. I mean, you can confess this fresh out of school.

That's just kind of where it is. That's where industry is. If you Google, what does an MSL make? On average is high nineties. Me, it's a low one, something, that's what they do. Best industry sales reps, which is it's like working. It's like having a nurse manager that's on the salary and then having the nurse that works and gets like shifts different, all this kind of stuff.

That's a different than the sales rep. The sales rep has a nice base salary, but they make bonuses, is your hustle, how hard is your hustle? Okay. But what's the, this is what the beauty is about. Most of the nurses jobs that people don't know. So you got your sales rep, right? And then you got a nurse educator they're still there, both on the commercial side, in their team, right?

The nurse educator don't have to sell anything, but the first sales rep is the bomb and has a good year. She gets a bonus too. And she didn't have to do nothing, but you don't get that on the medical side . On the commercial side. If you got a sales rep that is a beast. Y'all have a great year. I love it because you get to you didn't do you go, what are you doing?

Something you go to teach, but you didn't fail, not one pill, but if they had a great year, you get a bonus too, because you are, you are a team. So that's what I tell the nurses. You don't have to sell anything. You just got to have you a really good sales rep.

Naseema McElroy: [00:46:30] Yeah, but  you were starting to talk about the stock options,  yeah,

Dr Latora: [00:46:33] SO if you get a job with Pfizer, who has the COVID vaccine now, right? So you get a job with Pfizer, not on the COVID team, not on the COVID team, but also something else that Pfizer makes Pfizer makes robotic they make Viagra, Viagra. Okay. So Pfizer maze, Viagra, not the COVID stuff, but they make Viagra, but Pfizer is going to have a great year because they came out.

Okay. Everybody that works for Pfizer bonus isbased on what the whole company does, not just what your team did. So think about all the people that's working at Pfizer this year, their entity year bonuses are probably going to be enough to pay for a car.

Naseema McElroy: [00:47:31] Speechless.

Love it though, but that's right. That's the whole different industry that's like out of the hospital, all the other stuff, you know, these are ancillary services, but listen, like what nurses have to contribute, is phenomenal in so many different industries. And that's why I like telling nurses, you have everything that it takes to be a millionaire, if not billionaire it's easy, but we just have to know what's possible. And what's hard is that sometimes we get this tunnel vision because we're in these roles and we only see this small, like clinical ladder that we can go up. Not only, not even seeing that there's a whole nother path, millions of other paths that we can take.

And that's why I have this platform because I need, especially for us, expose us to what is out there and connect people with people that look like them that have done it that have blazed those trails that have gone down these paths that traditionally  weren't built for us, but we're going to go ahead and step into these rooms.

If we have to be the only people at the table, it really doesn't matter because listen, what. You're doing, you're going to bring somebody else along, behind you to do. And so that's why it's important that we create seats at this table. Not only our own tables, but we also create seats at the table so I can pull up a chair for the next person.

Dr Latora: [00:48:57] So  people see someone that looks like me?  You about to make me choke up. When I first got in the industry,  I got recruited into one of the top biopharm companies in the world. And when I was telling people that that's what I was going on, where they was like, how did you do that?

Because people that's like where you retire from first industry job, right. There was 11 of us. I tell people it was only 10 other people in the world that did what I did. And I was the only nurse on the team. And I was the only black girl.

Naseema McElroy: [00:49:36] It? That is phenomenal, but it's also very sad.

Dr Latora: [00:49:41] No, no. I'll say

Naseema McElroy: [00:49:44] because like,  why are we still being the first? Why are we still being the first? Like, it don't make sense. even for me,

Dr Latora: [00:49:56] Yes. Yes. The first, no, my manager was a male African-American male, black women, and it was just like, I would go to meetings and we'd be in these phenomenal places. Like we went to Kampala. That was one of our, that was our around. Team trips,

I'm in the room. I V only when I went to orientation to this company in California, it was a room like a conference room. So it had to be probably two or 300 of us in there. I counted all the black people. Counted on you may have been 10. Maybe. I don't even know if it's not include the ones that already working with the people that would want the orientation with me are 200, some people 10, and most of them were not from here.

They were people of color, but they were not originally from here. Okay. So it is sad that, I mean, it's sad it's 2020, but that happens all the time. Even now, the company that I'm with now on my team, I'm the only black person, not just the only black woman. I am the only black person.

I'm the only nurse too, but I'm the only black

Naseema McElroy: [00:51:40] person. Wow. Okay. So I know you put people up on game all the time on how to get into the industry, but I know that people want to know how can they work with you so they can transition out of the bedside and get int o this whole new world that has opened up for them.

Dr Latora: [00:51:59] Well, I, I love what you can see. I can talk forever. I work I have my own, company, it's called Eclipse Health Consultants, LLC, and I help. With people that are trying to transition into the industry are they're just looking for not necessarily industry, but looking for opportunities outside of the normal hospital or doctor's office or clinic type. What else can I do? And they can contact me. My email is the thenursedociszen@gmail.com because I also do yoga and yoga wellness for healthcare professionals and busy people. And I do therapeutic yoga online. So I'm doing that too. So I'm kind of all over the place.

Naseema McElroy: [00:52:43] I mean, like what else do you do? Like how, how, just how, like, how can you be any more phenomenal than you already are? I can't yeah,

Dr Latora: [00:52:56] the yoga is me. That's my. That's my personal wellness and my sanity and my wellbeing. And I will post online as accountability for myself. And that business kind of happened because people were like, Oh, you do yoga. Can you? And I'm like, sure. And then same thing. I had a coach, a business coach, and she was like, you just do a sessions for free.

I was like, yeah, you know, I'll get up in the morning. People want to join me, just come on. She's like, no ma'am. She was like, no, she's like, they didn't pay you. And I was like, they don't pay me to hang out with me in my little room. She was like, yeah, they will. And who they.

And I work with clients all the time. So yeah, I'm on Instagram as the nurse doc is zen Facebook as a nurse doc nurse doc zen den or the tour, that's my personal page. And yeah, they can reach me that way, but the easiest way to reach me is on to email me and I, my website is the nurse doc, his name back call.

Naseema McElroy: [00:54:16] Awesome. So yes, you guys. So she will consult you if you want to get into biopharmaceuticals. As you know, as you can hear from this podcast, there are so many different avenues that you can go into. But what's super important. As Dr. Latora is saying is that, you know how to craft the skills that you already have on paper to your current skills for people who might not be able to pick up on that because people don't know what you do unless you tell them.

And we do. So much. And so, especially for our recruiter, they asked to put the people that you have to get through first. Right. They don't know, so she can help you with that. She can help you find your industry. She can help you find what sector of the industry you work in. So I'll make sure you work with her because she has the inside scoop

and she'll probably have your best interest in heart, more than any recruiter or anyone else that you can reach in these industries because they're probably not a lot of people that you. You can get in contact who are going to be looking out for you. Like she was up. That's why I'm so happy that you're able to join us.

Dr. Latora, like I said, like, I feel like as a person who has experienced a lot and Has had the benefit of being in some pretty powerful circles is my obligation to bring other people up with me and this podcast as a medium to expose the masses to people like you, who also have a seat next to them.

And the more seats we can bring to the table, the better the world will be because you know that as black women. We impact positive change, not only in our communities, but for the world. And so I appreciate everything that you do. I appreciate you sharing your story. It is a phenomenal one and I just cannot wait to hear.

Like where you're taking all of this, but also I'm super encouraged to know that there are so many people who will be inspired and will take action from listening to this. So I really appreciate you.

Dr Latora: [00:56:18] No, I appreciate you having me on and letting me just kind of ramble for a while. I hope there was something I said stuck with someone and I mean, I, I love that mentoring and.

That's just been something that I've done my entire nursing career. And like I said, the business mindset of it, I had to get me a business coach to say, you know, you can make this a business. I know you do this all the time for people, but you can actually make this a business. And I am. Real to do it. And I definitely, I feel like we need to see more people of color.

And anytime I walk into a room and I see another woman of color, especially African-American woman, it just brings joy to my heart because a lot of times I am the I'm the unicorn in the room and it's very odd and very off sometimes. But we can do this! We just have to know that it's available to us. And know how to make it a reality is there is there for us to have, and we definitely are skilled and we definitely have what it takes to do it. We are overqualified a lot of times for a lot of the stuff that we're doing. We just don't know how to. Get them to pay you for what you're actually worth.

Naseema McElroy: [00:57:34] Yeah. Yeah. And we don't know how to sell ourselves. We really don't. And I think a lot of times it's just a lot of self-sabotage because we don't see people like us in those rooms. We don't think that we're worthy. We don't think that we can go on these luxury trips. We don't think that we teach and get paid to go on these trips.

Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, we don't think that's a possibility for us, but I hope seeing Dr. Latour shows you that. It is not only possible. That is something that is you're right. Like this is something that you can do, like,

Dr Latora: [00:58:05] please, you can need more of us. So people come, come and bless somebody with your brilliance because that's exactly what they need because it's there and you just need to show it to them. You can bless the world with your brilliance. And

Naseema McElroy: [00:58:24] I think also, I feel like these companies are incentivized to make sure that the people that are representing them are representative of the communities  they're going into. And if you only have one person in best believe you're not being represented in certain communities there for how can you really say that?

Speak to the needs of those communities. If you're teaching about medication, if you're teaching about equipment, you need to understand the so-called social circumstances of the people that you're talking to. And these people don't understand, you know,

Dr Latora: [00:58:58] and now honestly now is the time because diversity and everybody has a diversity and inclusion department manager, a VP. Now everybody has.

Naseema McElroy: [00:59:10] Now is definitely the time. So again, it's your time. Okay. So yeah. Thank you.

Dr Latora: [00:59:19] Yeah, I would be happy to work well with anyone that comes to me through your podcast. I'm so happy for you to have me on this platform. Just thrilled to be able to talk to you. Your energy is just awesome.

I love it. Huh? I'm which for this opportunity, like I said, mentoring, CNA, nurse, that's my entire nursing career. That's what I've done is, is mentoring. And I love it. And I love to talk as you can tell. So. Yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready to, I'm ready to work with. Whoever's ready to go, but you gotta be ready to work too.

That's the thing. I cannot do it for you. It's not in you send me your resume and I recreate it for you. That's not how this works. We gotta, you gotta be ready to work. Yeah.

Naseema McElroy: [01:00:10] Don't don't come half stepping. Okay. It's I'll put my name behind it if you do. Okay. Cause I'll reject you. I'm like, no, I don't. I did not refer you.

You did not hear about her through me now. You did not. So yes, come correct. When you come talk to Dr. Latour. Okay. Because she has the resources that you need to get you started, but you have to do the work. Okay. So thank you again, Dr. Latoya, this has been a pure pleasure.

Dr Latora: [01:00:34] It has been a pleasure for me too. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

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