Clinical research associate jobs require a very high level of professional and academic education with a thorough grounding in scientific application of the skills sets required to ensure the end product is effective and safe to use by patients.
Clinical research jobs generally deal with two types of clinical trial; interventional and observational. Interventional clinical trials involve an investigator who has responsibility for assessing a patient and assigning a treatment proposed by the trial study. This may involve the issuance of the drug that is being tested, a placebo, or nothing; the results are then observed and the data collected. Observational studies are simply that – patients are observed and data collected. It can be seen that generally, greater judgment is exercised within interventional studies and so entry level clinical research jobs tend to focus upon observational studies until experience has been acquired within the field.
Jobs in clinical research require candidates to have excellent observational skills and as they are dealing with patients and in some instances patients with severe illness or conditions, an ability to interact with people is essential – the proverbial “bedside manner” is an absolute must. In addition, the development of clinical judgment is a vital skill that must be developed and it is not unusual for clinical researchers and investigators to be heavily supervised in the initial phases of their career or indeed, in the initial phases of a trial.
Entry level clinical research jobs and positions are widely advertised as there is a demand for candidates to perform the clinical trials but competition is fierce for positions as they are sought after. Depending upon the area that is being entered, entry level positions are open to qualified nurses and graduates; however the more experience a candidate has with dealing with medical issues as it applies to patients the better.
One aspect of the work is trying to understand why people actually wish to participate in a clinical trial to begin with. Many patients are not suffering serious illness nor have a condition which significantly affects their quality of life; anything from a hay fever remedy to cancer and HIV treatment must be tested and there is a huge range of treatments which must be tested but are simply to relieve common, everyday conditions such as headache relief.
Many trial patients actually participate because they wish to take greater control in their treatment, many simply because they feel they are performing a good service and in some cases, there are financial incentives available as well. Where conditions are serious, even possibly life threatening, clinical trials represent a means of obtaining treatment which is otherwise not available to a patient or conventional treatment has failed and there is no other recourse to treatment.
Careers as a clinical researcher and investigator are rewarding both in terms of the work and the variety of tasks and responsibilities that accompany the job. The financial and benefit rewards are also very competitive too with the skills developed in demand both within the clinical research sphere and elsewhere within the medical and pharmaceutical sector. In addition to have a direct impact upon the development of treatments to help people, there are numerous opportunities to work with patients and satisfy the motivation for many who enter the medical professions which is the desire to help people live healthier lives.
Careers within clinical research are offered by some of the very largest companies in the country and indeed the world; given the international nature of the modern pharmaceutical industry, it is not uncommon for international travel opportunities to also arise for those who are interested in seeing something of the world.
Clinical research is also an excellent area to hone skills and gain new experience for later use with your career. Many academics and senior scientists have spent significant periods of their career working in clinical research positions and indeed, for many academics, clinical research is their life’s work. Clinical research also offers the opportunity for medical staff such as nurses to develop their career and lift themselves from the rather regimented environment for nursing staff with their limited ability to exercise clinical judgment and a glass ceiling which artificially caps their earning ability.
Clinical research is an important and crucial part of the pharmaceutical, medical and academic sectors of activity. The people who are involved are highly skilled, gain a very wide depth of experience and are presented with the opportunity to develop scientific and empirical judgment which would otherwise be denied them in their more traditional career path. At the same time, the positions are well rewarded financially and the skills that are acquired are highly transferable to new positions whether they are within clinical research or elsewhere within the industry.
