A Marriage Between Epidemiology and Nursing?

Nursing Students NP Students

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I'm very close to completing my prerequisites for entering a BSN program and more than ever I am excited to continue my path down the healthcare career path. However, I find myself falling in love with epidemiology and clinical research. Truly, how much opportunity is there available for nurses to be involved in research and to what extent? I was almost considering changing paths and becoming a scientist instead but there are so many appealing things about the nursing field (flexibility, good growth in industry, pay) and so many negative things I have heard about becoming a scientist (pretty much the opposite end of those three things).

So, any advice as to if I can satisfy all my appetites by continuing with nursing? I want to at minimum comfortable pay, good job prospects, mobility, and the chance to work in research eventually. Is this realistic or pie in the sky?

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Specializes in NICU.

Well, I'm taking an epidemiology class for my DNP degree right now. From what I can tell so far, nurses can definitely be involved in it- public health is a major field in nursing.

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Do you happen to know what the scope of nursing practice in a research environment would be? My dad is a GNP so he was at least able to assure me there is a growing role for nurses in a research capacity but was unable to tell me exactly what a nurse's scope of practice would be... hoping someone with direct experience might comment. :specs:

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There's no single answer to that question, and it depends largely on what an individual's interests are. There are nurses (generalists and advanced practice nurses) who never think again about research once they've finished school. There are nurses who spend their entire careers doing nothing but research. And everything in between. If it's a high priority for you and you're willing to relocate in order to do what you want to do, you can probably find a job doing pretty much whatever you want in that regard (with the caveats that you typically need to have a PhD to be a principal researcher, and, clinically, you are legally bound by your scope of practice ...)

A friend of mine spent 25 years working as a member of a research team at a v. well-known and prestigious psychiatric facility; participated in the research, got published, presented all over the country. Loved her job. Most of my friends in (nursing) academia are actively involved in research (typically, conducting their own research).

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I guess I want to know when you say "participate" in research what type of duties does a nurse have as part of the research team? When you say legally bound by scope of practice... how far does that scope of practice extend for a specialty? Perhaps an example or two would be helpful as I know there are so many areas of research and it would be hard perhaps to answer otherwise.

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Specializes in public health, heme/onc, research.

It depends on the type of research. I'm a research nurse (also call study coordinator) for heme/onc studies (mostly peds, but some adult) in a hospital setting. The hospital I work at has a research office that does research for cardiology, solid organ, cancer, stroke, and transplant. Typical duties for us include training hospital and clinic staff about the new protocols, collecting data and labs, writing study orders (for lab collection or medication administration), attending investigator's meetings to learn about the protocol/meet the sponsoring company/etc. I've also done research for chronic diseases in a clinic setting. This involved actively recruiting patients, maintaining regulator compliance plus all the other things I already mentioned.

You could also be involved in research on the pharmaceutical company end as a clinical research associate or monitor. They typically help get various sites ready to open a study, are available to answer questions, and act as a liaison between the site and the sponsor.

I also have my MPH in epi. I worked for 2 years at the health department doing "bean counting", but I also helped manage and STD clinic, did flu awareness surveys, researched TB prevalence in my area, etc.

Just as in nursing, research is a wide open field. I don't think I would have gotten my current research job without having a nursing degree, but I know several study coordinators who aren't nurses. I find it helpful to be a nurse because some study procedures or labs I can complete myself in case a unit or clinic nurse is really busy.

I hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

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I guess I want to know when you say "participate" in research what type of duties does a nurse have as part of the research team? When you say legally bound by scope of practice... how far does that scope of practice extend for a specialty? Perhaps an example or two would be helpful as I know there are so many areas of research and it would be hard perhaps to answer otherwise.

Again, there are so many variables and possibilities that there is no single answer to your question. There are nurses who are principal researchers, who are designing and directing their own research studies with a team working under them; nurses who are principal researchers who are conducting and publishing their own research independently(completely by themselves, without a team); nurses who are directly involved in implementing research protocols, collecting and analyzing data, and writing up results, and nurses who have v. minimal roles (but are still members of research teams).

My reference to "scope of practice" means that a nurse can't do anything in research that s/he wouldn't be able to do (legally) in clinical practice; e.g., if I don't have prescriptive authority, then I can't prescribe drugs as part of a research study. If I'm not authorized to interpret test results or read x-rays in clinical practice, then I can't do that as a member of a research team. Everyone in healthcare is legally bound by her/his licensure and established scope of practice.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Well, you learn something new every day, and this thread is my 'something new' today!

I don't believe I've ever given a thought to nurses working actively in the research field. Sounds fascinating, actually!

The only research I ever 'participated' in was when a doc had two patients on my step-down unit on a trial med study; We gave the med ( can't remember now what it was for...cardiac, respiratory or wound healing) We had to record a few things on separate forms, mostly basic assessment things.

What P'd me off was they never would tell us, even after the trials were over, who got the real thing and who got the placebo!

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Again, there are so many variables and possibilities that there is no single answer to your question. There are nurses who are principal researchers, who are designing and directing their own research studies with a team working under them; nurses who are principal researchers who are conducting and publishing their own research independently(completely by themselves, without a team); nurses who are directly involved in implementing research protocols, collecting and analyzing data, and writing up results, and nurses who have v. minimal roles (but are still members of research teams).

My reference to "scope of practice" means that a nurse can't do anything in research that s/he wouldn't be able to do (legally) in clinical practice; e.g., if I don't have prescriptive authority, then I can't prescribe drugs as part of a research study. If I'm not authorized to interpret test results or read x-rays in clinical practice, then I can't do that as a member of a research team. Everyone in healthcare is legally bound by her/his licensure and established scope of practice.

Thank you! You actually clarified for me exactly what I was wondering. :)

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Well, you learn something new every day, and this thread is my 'something new' today!

I don't believe I've ever given a thought to nurses working actively in the research field. Sounds fascinating, actually!

The only research I ever 'participated' in was when a doc had two patients on my step-down unit on a trial med study; We gave the med ( can't remember now what it was for...cardiac, respiratory or wound healing) We had to record a few things on separate forms, mostly basic assessment things.

What P'd me off was they never would tell us, even after the trials were over, who got the real thing and who got the placebo!

Yeah... I bet it is very frustrating not being able to know the ending to many patient "stories". Especially when the patient is on a trial medication.

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It depends on the type of research. I'm a research nurse (also call study coordinator) for heme/onc studies (mostly peds, but some adult) in a hospital setting. The hospital I work at has a research office that does research for cardiology, solid organ, cancer, stroke, and transplant. Typical duties for us include training hospital and clinic staff about the new protocols, collecting data and labs, writing study orders (for lab collection or medication administration), attending investigator's meetings to learn about the protocol/meet the sponsoring company/etc. I've also done research for chronic diseases in a clinic setting. This involved actively recruiting patients, maintaining regulator compliance plus all the other things I already mentioned.

You could also be involved in research on the pharmaceutical company end as a clinical research associate or monitor. They typically help get various sites ready to open a study, are available to answer questions, and act as a liaison between the site and the sponsor.

I also have my MPH in epi. I worked for 2 years at the health department doing "bean counting", but I also helped manage and STD clinic, did flu awareness surveys, researched TB prevalence in my area, etc.

Just as in nursing, research is a wide open field. I don't think I would have gotten my current research job without having a nursing degree, but I know several study coordinators who aren't nurses. I find it helpful to be a nurse because some study procedures or labs I can complete myself in case a unit or clinic nurse is really busy.

I hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

Thanks! You helped a lot. Nice to hear a variety of first hand accounts. :yes:

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I am a clinical research coordinator and research assistant now, beginning my accelerated BSN in 2016. I kind of laughed when you said you are getting excited about research because I am going into nursing to get away from it! I work in human genetics, by the way. It can be interesting but, my God, the paperwork.

Like you, I am also highly interested in epidemiology and when I pursue my MSN, I will consider a MSN/MPH combined program. I would do that even though I have no plans to return to research because I feel that public health starts on the individual level and, as a clinician, I could impact public health through directly educating patients. How many lay people do you know who have a true grasp on common issues like vaccination, antibiotic misuse/overuse, OTC drug and supplement safety, etc.? (Those are some of the issues I am interested in.)

Anyway, I work at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and I have seen many many job listings for research requiring a BSN as opposed to a BS in a life science (which is what I have). I would encourage you to intern over a summer or two at someone's lab in an area you are interested in. Even if it's not one that requires a nursing degree, the PI might be able to shed some light on labs that prefer nurses and could connect you with some good people.

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