Dawn

Dawn has been a paediatric research nurse for two and a half years. She started to feel more confident in her role about eight months into the post, but emphasises that it’s an ongoing learning process.

Dawn has been a paediatric research nurse for two and a half years. She also does bank shifts to maintain hands-on care in children’s wards and neonatal units. Dawn was drawn to a research nurse post because she wanted something different to do. She had been involved in auditing and initially, naively, I thought that research would be something quite similar. However, Dawn found it was quite an adjustment: it’s like learning a new language [‚] all the protocols, policies, all the legal requirements, all the ethical requirements. She undertook training, including an online Good Clinical Practice (GCP) course which she could dip in and dip out of; she later opted to also attend a face-face version of the GCP course. Dawn recalls feeling more confident after about eight months in post but emphasises that it’s an ongoing learning process. Her contract started as one year fixed-term and this uncertainty made it a difficult decision to take the job. Now, she wouldn’t like to think I was doing anything other than this. I definitely feel like this is my career pathway now until I retire.

As the only paediatric research nurse in her Trust, Dawn works across several hospital sites. Travelling between the hospitals can be time-consuming and costly, so she tries to pool my appointments and my visits to either one or the other hospital. She initially had some IT problems in the different sites, although this is easier now that she has a work laptop. Dawn’s role involves helping assess feasibility of potential studies, identifying patients/families to approach, gaining consent, and collecting data during visits. As well as paediatric studies, she has also been involved in a number of adult-focused studies which included children. Dawn feels it is important to go into detail when consenting patients/ families to a study, and she worries that sometimes people do not realise research is voluntary. She explains, you’re still the advocate [for the patient]. Dawn thinks her broad knowledge base as a paediatric nurse has helped in her research role, including awareness of how to navigate various electronic systems and locate equipment. Dawn would like to be involved in writing up data and maybe become a Principal Investigator for studies in the future.

For Dawn, teamwork and working well with colleagues is essential to the success of studies. She can screen for patients electronically but likes to go onto the wards: it just keeps that relationship between the research nurse and the ward staff. Dawn often helps out her colleagues and sees this as a reciprocal arrangement which can benefit research. If the ward is busy, she will weigh children and check their blood pressures. In return, sometimes ward staff will help her; Dawn remembers a time when she was at the wrong hospital to see a patient and the nurses at the correct hospital took the child’s blood samples, as she couldn’t get there in time. However, at times, Dawn has felt torn between her commitment to supporting clinical colleagues and to research. This was a particular concern with the winter pressures, and she heard some staff comment that research nurses should be relocated to the wards. Dawn feels strongly that we are contracted as well to our studies and that’s important. Even so, she sometimes feels a bit guilty [‚ And] that’s why when I’m on the ward, I do try to help out if they really are busy. Dawn also helps other research staff in her office and covers holiday/sickness leave for some research nurses. She is in the process of getting similar cover arrangements in place for herself.

Dawn enjoys her job and feels she is at the forefront of future patient care. She sees research as an extra service for patients and she would like to widen this opportunity to more people. One example Dawn gives is patients with health conditions who do not regularly have hospital appointments, meaning that they might be overlooked when screening for potential participants to invite to a study. Dawn sometimes talks to patients about research when in her (bank) staff nurse role and is happy to signpost anyone to studies of interest, not just those in the area of paediatrics. Dawn’s message to nurses considering a research nurse job is to speak to those currently in research roles to find out what it’s like. She thinks it is important to have ownership and the drive to want to succeed as well as the ability to think out of the box.

Dawn described tensions when there are major pressures on clinical staff. She is employed by the Clinical Research Network, rather than her hospital Trust, but expected that research staff might be pulled in to help.

Age at interview 55

Gender Female

Dawn completed Good Clinical Practice training online first and then again, out of choice, at a later date in a face-face session.

Age at interview 55

Gender Female

Dawn had a role in deciding which paediatric research studies to run at her Trust. This was challenging without access to the protocols and could mean finding unexpected issues at a later date.

Age at interview 55

Gender Female

Dawn felt it’s important that we are ambassadors for research, but encountered some resistance from a consultant to a monthly/bi-monthly stall she had been running.

Age at interview 55

Gender Female

Dawn had heard about research suggesting that research-active hospitals generally give better care overall to their patients, not just those enrolled on studies.

Age at interview 55

Gender Female

Dawn felt her familiarity with clinical environments was an asset in helping research studies to run smoothly.

Age at interview 55

Gender Female