How do I get a research job without research background?

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I'm tired. I'm tired of 12 hour shifts that last all night. I'm really interested. In a research position but have 2.5 years nicu experience. I live in San Diego and would love to find a research job.

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I'm really interested in this field too. Seems pretty difficult to get in to since every post I've seen requires experience.

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Right? How do you get experience if you have to have it to get the job?

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

You get experience by DOING a research project! I am in the middle of my third project- designed and conducted by me while working as a staff RN- and it has allowed me to add add research experience to my resume'. Do you have clinical specialists at your hospital? Do they do research? Ask if you can collect data for them. Does your hospital have an IRB? Ask to sit in on a meeting.

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I got my job this way: a friend of mine was complaining about her job as a research nurse saying "I feel like a glorified secretary". I was so bone-tired at that life-moment, and I thought "Dang, I would love to be a glorified secretary!! I'd be a really good glorified secretary!!" That night I changed my resume on Monster.com to say that I wanted to be a Research Nurse. The next day a hospital recruiter called me to say she had a research nurse job that needed to be filled immediately. (the position had been vacant for 6 weeks which, in Research-World is forever, and the physician had called the recruiter that morning breathing fire--so much for needing experience!!)

The plus side was I got the job. The hard part was that I had no idea what I was doing. Research is it's own little world, with quirks and expectations that are not at all intuitive (probably similar to the NICU). I bumbled my way through the first few months with the help of a really stellar and compassionate Research Assistant who oriented me to everything, and I finally got the hang of it.

I work in a large Academic Hospital--I assume that's the kind of research nursing you'd want to move into. The pay is much better than in the Pharmaceuticals Industry.

I've been a research nurse for almost 7 years now, and it has suited me & my family very well for that time, though I'm now looking at going back to school &/or planning to return to a direct care role.

One thing I really notice about research nursing that is very different than a clinical setting is that involves a great deal of writing, reading, trying to interpret the meaning of policies, and following obscure rules that seem to conflict with each other. There's no nurse manager or practice committee to straighten out the confusion & provide guidance. There is rarely anyone to really puzzle things out with--that is what the team relies on the research nurse for. It also can be quite isolated (where I am almost all of us work as the only nurse on a team, so no one else knows your exact setup, personalities or protocols you're working with). This was quite a shock to my system because I was used to having nurses around to bounce things off of. Also, I was used to a chaotic, bustling clinic setting where lots of funny or touching or potent or scary things happened every day. Research nursing has a lot of urgent deadlines, but there's very little to write home about or take to heart. The other thing I was not prepared for was that frequently research nurses work closely with Research Assistants who are just-graduated-from-college, high-achieving students who want to go to med school. There is a lot of mentoring to do as they can come out of school without much practical work experience. So, if you're going to be in an Academic Hospital setting, you probably need to have a big warm spot in your heart for 22-24 year-olds who are somewhere between puppies and baby birds.

So if those things sound like a refreshing break (they were for me, just hard to get used to), Research Nursing might be a good bet.

Lots of people want you to spend money to learn to be a research coordinator or research nurse. If you can afford one of those classes or programs that may help you get your foot in the door, since sites looking for Research Nurses will recruit from those programs. You will definitely have a leg up. But I don't think it's necessary.

I found this document http://www.ons.org/media/ons/docs/publications/ctncompetencies.pdf to be an extremely accurate take on what is expected of a research nurse in a Academic Hospital setting. While some of it is specific to Oncology, the competencies section at the end is pretty much how it works (it's a lot). I would recommend that you spend a few evenings reading through it trying to puzzle out what it's talking about, looking up the terms and getting a bit of a grounding in the different components. And then, with that overview, network like crazy until you find some research nurses to talk to. If you can't find any, start answering ads looking for research subjects and ask to talk to the research nurse. If you go see how their offices are set up, and hear how their research teams work, etc, it will be more real to you. If you can imagine yourself in their role, you can probably make a good enough impression in an interview. Also, your new contacts may be able to help network for you. As I said, it is very hard on a team to go without a research nurse--things really grind to a halt--so when hiring happens it is often urgent.

Best of luck!

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I'm really excited. I finally got a job in research! I just blindly submitted my resume to a center in my area a few weeks ago. I got a call on Monday to set up an interview (about 5 minutes after I accepted another position). I interviewed on Thursday and got a call on Friday morning with an offer. It's definitely different from what I had been doing, but I'm looking forward to it.

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Sds1arm2 - what type of research will you be doing, will it be on new investigative medications?

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