The New Faces of Care: 5 Healthcare Professional Personas Every Point of Care Strategy Should Reach

As healthcare continues to evolve, patients now interact with a broader care team and many of the most meaningful moments in their journey happen with healthcare professionals that aren’t physicians. Advanced Practice Providers (APPs), health care provider, and medical assistants, increasingly guide education, influence treatments who are not physicians but who perform medical activities typically performed by physicians, pharmacists, registered nurses and medical assistants increasingly guide education, influence treatment decisions and support treatment adherence—acting in critical roles that directly shape patient outcomes.

Point of Care (POC) marketing must evolve with these shifting care team dynamics. Reaching only physicians no longer reflects how care happens. Today’s strongest POC media strategies meet patients and providers where decisions are made—across exam rooms, intake desks, pharmacy counters and at every touchpoint in between.

And brands that recognize the need to market beyond the physician’s office gain a competitive advantage. By engaging the full care team, marketers unlock new patient touchpoints, deepen healthcare provider (HCP) engagement, and build the foundation for stronger clinical conversations. The result is a more connected POC ecosystem: one that drives better understanding, better adherence, and better outcomes.

This expanded ecosystem brings new opportunities and new responsibilities for brands aiming to deliver relevant, evidence-based information at critical moments of care. To reach patients effectively, marketers must understand the distinct roles of the healthcare professionals shaping their journey.

Five personas are especially influential: Nurse Practitioners (NPs), Physician Assistants (PAs), Pharmacists, Registered Nurses (RNs), and Medical Assistants (MAs). Each plays a unique role in guiding patient conversations, reinforcing education and driving decisions.

Why These 5 HCP Personas Matter Now

The Healthcare Workforce is Changing

Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) now make up 41% of the provider workforce, reflecting a healthcare system increasingly dependent on non-physician clinicians.¹

Pharmacies Are Rising as Access Points

Pharmacy-provided materials continue to grow in importance, as two out of three patients value printed brochures or other take-home health materials from a pharmacy, up 9% from 2022.²

Patients Value Point of Care Education

Nine out of ten patients say that point-of-care education is important to understanding their health—spanning brochures, digital check-in tools, in-office materials, and pharmacy take-homes.²

POC Drives Action and Better Outcomes

37% of patients who noticed healthcare ads in a doctor’s office or at a pharmacy engaged in an adherence-related action, like refilling or taking medication.²

These insights illustrate why a holistic Point of Care Marketing approach, one that accounts for all influential HCP personas, is essential for delivering impact.

The Five Healthcare Professional Personas Every Point of Care Strategy Should Reach

1. Nurse Practitioners (NPs)

Why They Matter

Nurse Practitioners serve as primary clinicians across a wide range of outpatient settings. They manage diagnosis, prescribing, and long-term disease education.

NPs also play a leading role in patient education: 85% of NPs provide educational materials during a patient visit, compared to 72% of physicians.

How to Reach NPs at the Point of Care

• Place educational materials in exam rooms, NP-led clinics and urgent care settings.
• Pair print + digital to support diverse patient needs, maximizing reach and effectiveness.
• Embed content into NP workflows—Electronic Health Records (EHR) alerts, exam-room screens, digital check-in tools.
• Provide concise, high-value materials NPs can immediately share during the visit.
• Evaluate NP impact with metrics tied to patient education usage and lift in treatment adherence.

What Reaching NPs Unlocks

Deeper reach into one of the fastest-growing and most patient-facing segments of the healthcare workforce.

2. Physician Assistants (PAs)

Why They Matter

Physician Assistants deliver high-volume patient care across specialty and primary care settings. They guide diagnosis, treatment planning and patient education, often functioning as the primary touchpoint between a patient and a clinic.

Like NPs, PAs provide educational materials during the visit at high rates (85%) and are more likely to share educational information via print, detailed explanation or patient portals.³

How to Reach PAs at the Point of Care

• Map PA-driven workflows in high-density specialties.
• Deploy digital exam-room screens, condition-specific brochures and on-demand patient tools.
• Provide materials that simplify complex therapies or specialty guidance.

What Reaching PAs Unlocks

Greater influence in specialty-driven decision moments where treatment complexity and patient questions are high.

3. Pharmacists

Why They Matter

Pharmacists are now frontline educators. They not only dispense medications but also manage patient counseling, adherence conversations, vaccinations, chronic disease support and cost-navigation guidance.

Patients strongly value pharmacist-provided information: 86% of patients value pharmacists as a source of health information, and two out of three value printed pharmacy take-home materials.²

How to Reach Pharmacists at the Point of Care

• Activate pharmacy-based POC placements, such as waiting-area screens, shelf talkers, and counter displays.
• Provide pharmacists with counseling aids such as take-home guides or QR-based support.
• Reinforce adherence and savings program education.
• Measure impact using refill data, pharmacist-initiated counseling rates, and digital engagement.
• Combine print + digital POC tactics to support varying literacy and access needs.

What Reaching Pharmacists Unlocks

High-frequency, high-trust patient interactions that directly reinforce adherence at the moment they receive prescribed therapies.

4. Registered Nurses (RNs)

Why They Matter

Registered Nurses guide education, reinforce treatment steps, manage discharge instructions, and act as a trusted bridge between providers and patients. They are essential to aiding in patient understanding.

Patients trust RN-delivered information—and RNs’ educational touchpoints influence adherence, self-management, and follow-up behaviors.

How to Reach RNs at the Point of Care

• Place materials in patient rooms, education hubs, and discharge areas.
• Provide clear, patient-friendly resources—this is critical as one third (35%) of physicians find patient education materials too complicated for patients to easily understand.
• Enhance RN workflows with QR codes, tablets or on-demand educational videos.
• Capture feedback from RNs to refine content and reduce confusion points.
• Track RN-driven distribution and usage as part of a patient-outcomes measurement plan.

What Reaching RNs Unlocks

Higher-quality patient education and better preparedness for treatment conversations.

5. Medical Assistants (MAs)

Why They Matter

Medical Assistants are often the first and last touchpoint in the visit. They conduct intake, manage check-in tools, distribute materials and guide pre-visit expectations—making them influential in what patients see, read or scan before or after meeting with a clinician.

Their frontline role makes them essential to a holistic healthcare team engagement strategy.

How to Reach MAs at the Point of Care

• Design tools MAs can easily hand to patients during intake or check out.
• Use check-in tablets to display brand education early in the visit.
• Equip MAs with quick-reference guides to ensure consistent material distribution.
• Deploy print messaging in waiting areas where MAs frequently interact with patients.
• Track MA-driven distribution metrics as part of campaign optimization.

What Reaching MAs Unlocks

Earlier touchpoints that prime patients for better, more productive conversations with NPs, PAs and physicians.

How to Integrate These Personas Into a Unified POC Strategy

Now that we’ve established the HCP personas that you should consider engaging beyond physicians, here’s how you can work them into integrated campaigns at the POC.

1. Build a Persona-Driven Strategy

• Identify and map where each persona influences decisions.
• Align POC tactics (print, digital, EHR, pharmacy placements) to healthcare
• provider personas.
• Use persona-specific KPIs to drive meaningful measurement.

2. Implement With Precision

• Collaborate early with POC channel partners to align objectives and auditing.
• Deploy POC media across intake, exam, pharmacy and discharge touchpoints.
• Use creative that supports quick comprehension and cultural relevance.

3. Measure and Optimize Continuously

• Evaluate adherence and conversation lift tied to each persona.
• Incorporate test vs. control where possible.
• Refresh digital creative mid-campaign to maintain relevance and performance.
• Use digital POC placements to rotate messaging mid-campaign for performance optimization.
• Align upfront on KPIs to support clean post-campaign measurement.

Why Now Is the Moment to Invest in Point of Care

POC remains one of the most valued and effective sources of health information, for both patients and clinicians.

Health information at the point of care ranks second in importance only to doctors.²

Plus, exposure drives action: 76% of adults who saw a prescribing physician in the past year report a strong relationship with that provider,² and POC materials reinforce that trust and prompt meaningful follow-through.

POC messages not only educate—they inspire adherence, prompt conversations and help patients navigate cost and safety concerns.

For brands and media buyers, the opportunity is clear: Engage the full care team beyond physicians so you can meet patients at the moment decisions happen and deliver clarity where it matters most.

References

1. Kaufman Hall, Report: Advanced practice providers gaining ground on physicians, May 2025
2. M3 MI 2025 MARS Consumer Health Study, Slides: 9, 14, 15, 17, 18, 23.
3. M3 MI’s 2025 Sources & Interactions + Digital Insights Study, M3 MI’s 2025 Sources & Interactions + Digital Insights Study PA/NP Edition
4. M3 MI’s 2025 Sources & Interactions + Digital Insights Study