Being a research nurse, you get to leverage your skills. You continue using your knowledge and skills to see research patients for their visits such as collecting vitals, ECGs, blood draws, medication administration, reviewing medical history, etc. As a nurse, you already have mastered patient and medical care. It's a matter of learning some additional research fundamentals to incorporate into your day-to-day practice. Other administrative duties of a research nurse include getting consent, regulatory work, attending meetings documentation, and organizing study materials. You take a lead role and are responsible for everything from drawing blood to processing and shipping it.
Benefits of working as a research nurse:
- 8-hours shift, No on-call or weekends
- Work-Life Balance
- Not as stressful as being at Bedside
- Contribute to advancing science
- Professional development
- Numerous growth opportunities within the research industry
- Quality assurance home-based positions down the line
If you know and understand well and have enough training for the ins and outs of the clinical trials, are organized, good with documentation, and communicate effectively, you will be successful in your role. There is a huge demand for research nurses at this time.
Clinical trials make life-saving drugs and there is so much to learn. There is a lack of awareness and not too many healthcare professionals know about clinical trials. Educating the community and bringing hope to patients with innovative treatment options for whom available treatment doesn't work sound very interesting and satisfying.
Now the question must be, how to get involved in research? Check at your current workplace to find out if there is a clinical research department. They may provide you with on-site training and you get to shadow research staff to learn the basics. You can also work with other organizations which provide research training. Once you have incorporated the research skills with your nursing skills, you can start looking for research nurse positions within different institutions, clinics, and hospitals and break into this exciting field.
