Moving from ICU to research?

LocaW8ta · Sep 15, 2013

Phase I research is a completely different species of nursing compared to ICU. Phase I subjects are healthy, ICU patients are ill. Research is unique and not for everyone, particularly if you don't enjoy the paperwork/administrative part of it. At our facility, most nurses are under 40. I absolutely love what I do. It's the perfect brand of crazy. :)

flyingchange · Sep 15, 2013

Research nurses need to be highly organized and very detail oriented (ask me how I know). In life I am a very Type B, but at work I know the status of all my studies, my research patients, and all of their extensive paperwork. Typical ICU nursing experience would play well into this role, I believe.

Everyone at my office, except the PIs, are under 35. That wasn't always the case, though. The 2 previous team leads were well seasoned nurses and when they retired, we had a big change of staff. Good luck!

Deetail · Sep 16, 2013

Phase I research is a completely different species of nursing compared to ICU. Phase I subjects are healthy, ICU patients are ill. Research is unique and not for everyone, particularly if you don't enjoy the paperwork/administrative part of it. At our facility, most nurses are under 40. I absolutely love what I do. It's the perfect brand of crazy. :)

How many nurses do you work with? Is it kind of like an office environment?

Deetail · Sep 16, 2013

Thanks!! What is the role of the "team lead?" How is that role different than just a research nurse?

Is it a field most people stick with for many, many years vs the fast turnover you see in acute care?

Research nurses need to be highly organized and very detail oriented (ask me how I know). In life I am a very Type B, but at work I know the status of all my studies, my research patients, and all of their extensive paperwork. Typical ICU nursing experience would play well into this role, I believe.
Everyone at my office, except the PIs, are under 35. That wasn't always the case, though. The 2 previous team leads were well seasoned nurses and when they retired, we had a big change of staff. Good luck!

Deetail · Sep 24, 2013

Any other tips from the field? Is this a specialty not many people regret getting into?

LocaW8ta · Dec 17, 2013

So sorry I didn't respond earlier! Yikes! We have about a dozen nurses. And also MA's who work as Research Technician's. We have both inpatient and outpatient studies at our facility. So I get to do both.

link51411 · Feb 11, 2014

Overall I am very glad that I went into research and I do not want what I say below to prevent you from giving it a shot. You will learn a completely different perspective and there is a lot of room for growth and development. Research has also given me a different perspective on life and in my practice. My eyes have been opened up to importance of global and community/public health. I also now see the importance of questioning everything from hospital protocols to the research articles that the protocols are based on if they were even research based to begin with.

It is a completely different mind set though. In any research you are no longer treating patients. When I first started, I was somewhat shocked when I was told that I could not get a BP on a patient prior to consent because if I left the hospital I was allowed to do it on the city streets. So for me the whole concept changed from using your knowledge and abilities to save lives to doing something because the protocol simply says to do it and nothing beyond the protocol. The one place where it pays to be a good ICU nurse is in the role of safety reporting and being able to connect the dots and find relationships. There are many more frustrations in research compared to working in the units. For example, you will be shocked at how much the nurses in the hospital dislike us. They blatantly do not do orders, get labs hours late, or will sometimes get a VO from a resident to cancel our VO, that we put in under the attending/PI for study purposes, and then send the your patient home so there is no chance to get needed data.

I was also 1 on three staff in both departments that I have worked in. The first was Int. cardiology and I was essentially on-call 24/7 365 because I was the only one who was consistently was close enough to the hospital. Now I am the only nurse in the department with 2 coordinators. So I get pulled in 5 different directions to draw blood, give study drug, etc... for the coordinators because only I can do these tasks. At the same time I am expected to keep up the same number of regulatory binders and do the same if not more data entry and safety reporting because of course I will get all the drug studies since I am the only nurse. It gets overwhelming to say the least. There has been a very quick turnover in our department of research nurses for the above reason.