classicalcat

Hi, I have an associates in nursing, but I also have a bachelors in biology and a masters in Mass Communication. You definitely don't need a MSN. There are plenty of research coordinator positions that aren't even nursing as well. A bachelors should be fine. As far as salary, that would depend on your location. I took a large pay cut from my floor job to do research. But the pay was more than a clinic nurse. I just liked moving away from the 12 hour shifts, which I did not enjoy at all.

It would depend on the employer and what they list as requirements. Is this for you? Your profile says 25 years of healthcare experience. That would qualify you probably. If it is for someone else with no healthcare experience, at a minimum, they would be looking for a bachelors degree. It should probably be in some sort of biological science or social services. Go to Indeed.com and type in Clinical Research Coordinator. You will see loads of jobs and then you can read the requirements and come up with a plan! (in today's market, job seekers are in demand, so requirements might be less picky)

No, you can't have a nursing program with no hands on experience. The job you would be searching for is a "Research Clinical Coordinator" instead of Research Nurse. I worked with 2 clinical coordinators who had bachelors degrees and one had a masters in public health. They were both knowledgeable about healthcare in general and what labs were concerning, etc. You have to be well organized and comfortable working with other medical professionals. But you really don't need to do hands on. I took my own vital signs, but if it is a doctor's visit, the CMA could do that for you. Best of luck! I left research nursing, as it wasn't enough hands on for me.

Hello, I have just applied for a Home Transition Nurse position. I will be interviewing this week. Other than Case Management, it is hard to find info on this exact position. It sounds like the nurse will be helping the patient transition from the hospital to the home setting and helping the patient so that they don't get re-admitted to the hospital unnecessarily. Anyone else doing this job? I would love to hear more about it, as it seems to involve a lot of patient education, which I like. (My background is 13 years mother/baby; special care nursery; pediatrics; women's surgeries and 2.5 years as a clinical research nurse. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing your experience! Mine is much different, most likely due to the fact that I am in a small town and hospital. I have been a research coordinator for 2.5 years and am quite bored. 90% of the time I am searching for patients for studies--only to find that the PI could have recommended the study, but chose another medication. It has been frustrating. I only have 3 patients right now, and they are seen every 12 weeks! I can't find any patients for a heart study I have due to the requirements in the protocol. In addition, I have had to close to oncology studies due to not finding anyone for them. Alas, I have applied for another job. I wanted this to be a good fit, but it has been mostly keeping up with the regulatory side of things. I miss seeing patients! I wouldn't steer people away from this job. It has the potential to be great. I have learned a lot! But if looking into a position, make sure to ask a lot about how many studies there are and what your exact duties will be. (I also took a $10/hr pay cut because it was not in our union.)

Hi All, I am a former pediatric/neonatal nurse who is now working as a nurse clinical research coordinator. I am trying to help a professor put together a research study in which he wants to get frequent blood samples (healthy adult volunteers). We are talking samples which are 5 minutes apart up to an hour apart (total of 12 samples needed over 8 hours). Our hospital's policy is not to obtain blood samples from an IV, but I know it can be done (this research would be under research, so I could bypass the hospital's policy). My question is: do any of you do that and how successful are you? There will not be anything running through the IV--I would have to figure out when to flush it, so as not to mess with the blood sample. Does this sound like a crazy plan?! Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hi all, Are any of your hospitals handing out I Pads or tablets to patients? We just started this. On one hand, they are nice...patients can send me a message, or know when their meds are due. On the other hand, they are expected to read all of their education topics and mark off that they read and understood it (postpartum unit). I sort of feel like a part of what I do as a nurse has been taken away. The patients don't seem excited about it, but perhaps it's because I am not sold yet. What are your thoughts?

Thanks for the reply! This seems about right to me. Good to know...

Hi All, I am curious what your hospitals do for training this area? When I was trained (years ago), I had 2 months with one-to-one precepting with another nursery nurse. This was after working postpartum for over a year (we do couplet care). Now, it seems that the status quo is to quickly train nursery nurses, with perhaps 3 shifts precepting, and then the new person is acting as the nursery nurse with the experienced nurse "available for back-up." This can be problematic, if the other nurse is not immediately available (i.e., that person has a full team of patients out on the floor). Granted, we are not a level III NICU, but we do get babies on CPAP, drug withdrawal, antibiotics, feeder/growers, and attend high risk deliveries--just not every day. Just curious what other hospitals do! Thanks!

Wow--great questions and lowsy answers from management! I work as a nursery nurse and I don't feel that our hospital has addressed the L/D issue either. We are going to get mandatory training in donning and doffing, but our only Ebola PPE cart (Don't know what is on it) is in the ED. I am not sure that the ED has been told to do with a laboring patient who says she just came from West Africa (not a far-fetched scenario in a college town). I listened in on a conference call the other day with the nursing union and the CDC and they said that they were working on an L/D protocol. Please keep us posted on what you are doing. With L/D, it doesn't matter that there are designated hospitals--we will have to deal with the hemorrhaging patient.

Our lab and IV team says that you can't get a blood specimen from a peripheral IV...shelbs3...does your lab do this routinely?

I was taking one of my pediatric patients to her car to discharge. When she got in, she saw a penny sitting on the seat. She picked up the penny and handed it to me...and in the sweetest voice said. "Here you go...now you can by ANYTHING you want!" Then she gave me a huge hug. I love my ped patients!

Hi All, Peds have moved to our postpartum floor, so I am new to peds. We don't have bed scales in all of our ped beds. The other day, we had an appy patient who was VERY painful and did not want to get out of bed. The only weight we had was from the ED. When we finally got him up and weighed (with lots of tears), he was 11 pounds lighter than what was recorded! This scared the daylights out of me, because all of the meds are dosed by weight. Luckily, the MD had dosed in the lower range, so with the lower weight, we were still OK. However, this should not have happened. What if we get patients with fractures, or a very painful MVA kiddo? How do you weigh the kids in your hospital? Some are light enough for a parent or the RN to hold and weigh (subtracting the adult's weight, of course). But what about a larger kid? Thanks!