Bedside nursing care to global healthcare

sfdrugsafety

Choosing nursing as an undergraduate degree was largely to heed my father's wisdom. It was later on that I learned the vocation nursing truly is. Nursing provided knowledge that was rewarding and unmistakably focused on the individual's needs at the bedside. Practicing nursing day in and day out made it practically challenging to see that there was a different world out there and that the focus can shift.

Moving to America provided a rich ground to explore ways to be effective in more ways than one, without having to give up nursing altogether.

I was ecstatic to learn that nurses in America, with the proper investment, can apply their skills and knowledge in a myriad of ways!

It was then that the University of California San Francisco gave me the opportunity to be a part of their Master of Science in Nursing program, specializing in Clinical Research Management. It was a natural fit for my desired transition to becoming more involved on a larger scale in public health by way of clinical research, and specifically in drug safety and pharmacovigilance - collecting, reporting, reviewing, and aggregating safety data for products that will later on, if approved by regulatory authorities, be used by the public at large.

After doing this for a number of years, I now have the desire to learn how to quantitatively make sense of the data and effectively communicate findings to the stakeholders including our patients, regulatory authorities, and scientific community.

Enter: MPH with a specialty in epidemiology...and I just might pursue this soon. I envision applying epidemiological methods to pharmacological issues I meet in clinical trials, e.g., pharmacovigilance, drug utilization, effectiveness comparisons, and adverse event monitoring.

Collaborating with colleagues, this education will allow me to conduct benefit-risk assessments of a molecule or drug which will be important in building the product's safety profile that clinicians will use in their practice and streamline or build appropriate risk management programs. I will be able to contribute to the design of studies estimating the probability of a product's beneficial effects in special populations like the elderly or HIV patients, or conduct a Phase IV study to identify post-marketing issues that could not be evident while the product is being studied in a limited and strict protocol environment; or data mining a registry housing information on pregnant women who have been exposed to HIV - all, of course, under strict subject protection guidelines. This is the application of nursing in a global setting.

I imagine this and other opportunities to further one's reach beyond bedside are not only available here in the land of opportunity, but elsewhere as well.

I, however, feel that America, despite its imperfections, is indeed one that nurtures and values individuals as well as groups and societies to pursue and protect life, liberty, and happiness.

Cheers to my colleagues worldwide who focus on individual care as well as to those making a difference in the global scene!

Bedside nursing care to global healthcare

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