Research Nurse

I'm on my 4th research-related job. They are all different, and the job duties are different, depending on what kind of studies you are doing and how many people you have working with you. I've worked in places where someone else did the budget and the IRB stuff, and places where I did it ALL (in fact, at my current job I am the Lone Ranger as far as research goes). I've worked in places where the docs had little to do with the studies, and places where MD involvement was high. I've worked in places where the emphasis was on NIH studies as opposed to pharmaceutical trials, and at places where I did funded and non-funded research. My involvement with gathering data has a lot to do with how much the company is willing for me to gather, and how much must be done by an MD or PhD. At some jobs I assisted in writing papers, at others I didn't.

So, yes, you won't find any consistency with job descriptions.

For me, I can say exactly "ditto" to what hypnotic nurse says. I have only co-authored one paper though, and all of my principal investigators were MD's.