That means, though, that people are needed to fill a variety of jobs in clinical research. Let's take a look at a few of them; see if you have the skills, interest and ability to fill one of these.
Clinical research nurse
Clinical research nurse jobs are jobs where you direct nursing care in a research environment, often working with teams of healthcare professionals and in multidisciplinary mode. Clinical research nurses help assess patient care problems, figure out how patients can best be taken care of, and revise care as necessary so as to put new nursing procedures and protocols in place as patients' conditions change. Clinical research nurses are often used to fill highly specialized nursing jobs, too.
Clinical research coordinators
Clinical research coordinator jobs feature people that set up research study sites for clinical trials, recruit, screen and enroll participants in a drug or study trial, arrange for follow-up visits and care, including giving patients drug and study supplies, and keep track of what items or substances were used in the research trial. Clinical research coordinators also make sure that any documents necessary including case report forms are filled out properly and are accurate, and they make sure that good clinical practice guidelines are followed. Clinical research coordinators can work in a variety of areas, including research organizations, biomedical companies, disease centers, pharmaceutical suppliers, physician's offices and hospitals.
Clinical research associate
Clinical research associate jobs consist of setting up clinical trials, keeping track of developments in progress while they're going on, and completing them.
Clinical trials are conducted for new drugs or medicines as they become available. They study the benefits, side effects, how effective they are, and any risks involved in taking this product. These trials have to be done before a product can be approved for medical use and be made available to doctors and pharmacists for prescriptions.
In some cases, clinical trials are conducted on healthy individuals to study the effectiveness of an over-the-counter medication, a vitamin, et cetera. In other cases, clinical trials are conducted on patients with diseases to see if the new medication is going to be more effective than previously available medications, or if a new medication is going to provide needed help when none was available before.
In addition, studies are done after a product has reached the market to keep track of safety, efficacy and side effects of the drug after it has reached widespread use within a larger population.
Pharmaceutical companies develop drugs for a particular disease, such as a specific type of cancer; they then must pass this drug to make sure it's effective and that its side effects are as minimal as possible. They must also make sure that it doesn't harm the patient more than the actual disease itself. (In some cases, something called "salvage therapy" is given to patients who are in the final stages of the disease as a last resort to try to help them; in this case, patients are made aware of unpleasant or dangerous side effects and may consent to the drugs' use anyway as a last hope.)
The clinical research associate must first develop and write the trial protocols before the trial itself is undertaken. The protocols are then presented to a committee that is established to make sure patients involved in the trial are not harmed during the study period
When a new drug is about to be tested, certain regulatory approvals must also be taken care of before the drugs can be dispensed. Clinical research associates then monitor the trials during the time their ongoing and verifying that the data taken during the study is accurate as compared to the patients' personal files.
Home based clinical research jobs
In some cases, you can do home based clinical research jobs as well, although they are not entirely home based. In general, you still must travel 10-15% of the time, but much of the work can be done from home. A home based clinical trial leader, for example, may review the documentation and files for accuracy and make sure that budgets, timelines, and other work guidelines are adhered to. People in this position may also help enroll patients in studies.
Getting the best clinical research jobs
With the proper qualifications, it's not difficult to find the best clinical research jobs. You'll need the proper background and education to get into clinical research, such as a nursing degree if you want to be a clinical research nurse. Take a look online and research various websites to determine what the particular qualifications for your particular area of interest are. However, this is a very "hungry" field and once you have those qualifications, it can be quite easy to find work. Simply go online and type in keywords such as "clinical research nurse" into your favorite search engine. This should bring up a list of job sites that are looking for qualified people.
Conclusion
Clinical research is a burgeoning industry with many different facets to it. And because this and the biotechnology industry in general is a growing sector of the job market, it is one that is likely to hire many new people within the next several years.
