Advanced Practice Perspectives
In this column, we will hear from an increasingly represented and crucial
component of hematology/oncology care: advanced practice professionals/
advanced practitioners. In this edition of ASH Clinical News, Amy Goodrich,
RN, BSN, MSN, CRNP-AC, shines a light on the often-overlooked work of the
clinical research nurse.
Research Nurses:
The Glue That Holds Everything Together
After graduating from nursing school, I
worked as a registered floor nurse for nine
years before becoming a research nurse.
Then, while I was working as a research
nurse, I was also attending graduate
school to become a nurse practitioner.
Of these experiences, the steepest learning curve I encountered – by far – was in
discovering the complexities of research
nursing.
A research nurse has to be whatever
the person in front of you needs the
nurse to be. The position requires a very
nimble mind – shifting from clinical care
to compliance to documentation to study
protocol – and jumping through all the
necessary hoops and wrangling all of the
involved parties… It’s simply mindboggling and, until you are neck-deep into it,
you might never know it existed.
The role of the research nurse can be
nebulous and, for the most part, the work
these advanced practice practitioners
(APPs) do is not tangible, or even visible,
to other health-care providers. Many of
our clinical colleagues may wonder what
we do when we aren’t physically seeing
patients. The short answer? A lot.
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ASH Clinical News
What Exactly Do We
Do?
The scope of the research
nurse is broad, and it varies
from center to center. Research nurses are the glue that
holds everything together.
They are responsible for protocol compliance from A to Z.
Depending on their institution and job responsibilities,
some research nurses are also
tasked with the data management portion of the research
work – filling out case report
forms and handling the regulatory work.
Overall, our job is to
answer questions – from patients, principal investigators,
and all parties involved in the
clinical research enterprise.
Typically, it is the physician, not the research nurse,
who identifies potential
patients for trials. But, from
the initial discussion with a
patient about the possibility
of enrolling in a trial to the point when a
patient is receiving treatment under the
study protocol, the research nurse is the
patients’ primary point of contact.
Once a patient expresses interest in
participating in a clinical trial, the research nurse walks him or her through the
consent process – reviewing a 25-page (or
more) document outlining every single
aspect of the study. This is probably the
most critical part of ensuring a patient is
truly informed of a trial’s risks and benefits, and also the part leas Ё