Rubric Criteria for 500 words Reflection Paper:

Content: 40%
Coherence: 40%
Clarity of Discussion: 20%
Total: 100%

Task 1:nursing research improves care

The university of louisville’s school of nursing is working in conjunction with university hospital while they go through
their magnet journey as a part of that they have to show evidence of research and evidence based practice so the faculty
and faculty researchers are helping the staff in the development of that my project is looking at the use of intensive
insulin therapy in the icu and there are a number of ways that protocols are being used in the icu to manage intensive
insulin intensive insulin means that patients who come in need to have their glucose levels or blood sugar levels at a
certain range and we use protocols to maintain that patients are typically put on an insulin drip and the nurses are
required to calculate any drip changes or changes in the rate of that insulin as they are being monitored we are doing
that currently with the use of a hand protocol where they have to actually do the hand calculations there is technology
out there that will actually allow us to do that by computer the use of the computer we think is more safe it will prevent
some of the errors just mathematical errors that you know might be common when people are kind of in a hurry and it’s
going to be useful and it’s going to be helpful for patients going to contribute to better patient outcomes and hopefully it
will also be better for the nurses, they’ll be more satisfied with this process it will be you know less time consuming for
them and having those prompts to get things done will be helpful and will keep their workflow in a better more
manageable state.

Task 2:role of the research nurse

I had been a nurse for a long time and i had experienced many things from being there at the delivery of a
birth to assisting with open-heart surgery and at that same time i had several family members that were going
through cancer as a nurse we see our patients and then we're done with them i wanted to be a part of making
cancer history as a research nurse you get to be a part of development process and you get to follow it
through to the end and that it's been very rewarding as i've been here at md anderson clinical skills were very
helpful in my role as a research nurse in urology because one of the protocols i did was instill chemotherapy
into the bladder and so we had to be able to catheterize another protocol i did was administering a vaccine so
knowing how to do a subcutaneous
Injection was important so most definitely actual nursing skills beyond just medication administration and
knowledge of side-effects and disease processes was very helpful i had been in the endocrine field before but
not the oncology field and so a lot of my efforts were involved in learning oncology research which is a little bit
different in some aspects than non oncology research nursing
Why did you decide to become a research nurse i wanted to become a research nurse because i enjoyed
research and i just really like the idea of being a part of something innovative being on the cutting edge being
and on the frontline even if it's you know behind the scenes of cancer research and at some point one day
eradicating cancer i'm always learning so you have to be willing to learn when you get into this and every time
you get a new protocol assigned to you it's always learning so if you have to want to learn to do this job and
there's just new drugs you know new treatments and don't be afraid to ask questions in nursing there's many
different positions you can become same thing as a research nurse not just working in one department there's
many departments within the institution there's different research nurse positions you can do that allow you
to change as your viewpoints change over time as a research nurse you're very.
What does a research nurse do?mobile my day starts out in my office which is in one building of the campus
and then our clinic is in the internal medicine center and the endocrine center in the main building and so any
type of documents or lab kits those things are transported to the clinic where the patient is seen you may
even be going to the acd building to the interventional radiology department because the patient has an on on
steady core tissue biopsy scheduled that day so you're actually picking up tissue samples and transporting
them to for example the histology core lab which is back in the main building on another floor and so the
opportunity for exercise on a lot of days is very much they're going back and forth between building the
building and if you look at our computer screens it looks just like an air traffic controller we have all these
scheduling all these procedures and everything that needs to be done that we're trying to
Coordinate to ensure that they happen and that no issues occur and so it can be very stressful trying to get
everything coordinated considering a patient is extremely important is vital that the research
Nurse understand the study that they're assigned to when a physician calls requesting eligibility on a patient it
is our responsibility to verify that,that patient is eligible for that study this becomes a safety issue as we never
want to consider patient to a study that they're not eligible for after that a visit is scheduled with the research
nurse this is where we establish the trust with the patient the bonding with the patient where a patient feels
like they're a part of the process and not just a research subject we also educate the patient on the study so
they know everything that's required of them and what to expect from us also we will give them a copy of the
informed consent to take home with them this allows them to highlight the areas of the consent i'm not sure
about they can write questions on that consent and then they will bring back at the actual consenting visit at
that time we will ask again if there's any additional questions that they have go over it again and we will sign
the informed consent at that time they are on the study and they will be followed by us by the research nurses
in the team
Through the tire stay on the study which could be over years you have to be able to tell the doctor that this
patient cannot go on protocol because they're not appropriate for protocol the assessment involves
determining what types of adverse events or toxicities the patient may be having from the
Treatment if there is any present updating how the patient has been doing in terms of their status have they
had problems doing a nursing physical assessment and then reporting any of those abnormalities to the
physicians so that they can follow up with with the medical assessment in my department the research nurses
collect the majority of the data for the research studies whether it be during the clinic visit or when we follow
up with patients over the phone there's databases that are used so there is a bit of a learning curve to learn
the different types of databases and how the data should be entered but then also more recently learning
how to further protect the page the relationship amongst the team of healthcare professionals it's like a little
miniature family if we can all work as a team and use whatever expertise we have i have a lot of empathy for
people and i've been there done that and so it's very important for me to lit whoever i'm working with know
that i care about there is a career path.

Career path as a research nurse

As a research nurse it will take at least a good year before you really feel comfortable as a research nurse it
takes that long to learn all the rules or regulations the studies the next level would be a senior research nurse
at that time it it's your responsibility as well is to mentor a new research nurse and
Then as you gain more experience you can become as research nurse supervisor and then the next step would
be a research nurse manager that would be managing all the research nurses within their
Department the soukra certification is the society of clinical research associates and if you are a data
coordinator or a research assistant or a research nurse you have the ability to take that certification if you're a
part of that membership and even if you don't have a membership for that organization i also attend the c rn c
which is a clinical research nurse committee meetings and those are held once a month and those are very
good for anybody in research because that's when and the opportunity for all the research nurses to come
together get information meet each other and share information so you kind of find out what's kind of going
on throughout the institution and research and networking as well.
Relationship with patients
The relationship of a research nurse with their patient is very special we do become i feel like the gatekeepers
of their health care not only their oncology healthcare but their possible other medical issues that may come
up during a clinical trial we actually find that patients will call us we're their
Number one contact when they're in a clinical trial because they begin to develop a trusting relationship with
us they know and understand that we are their first contact because they are on a protocol so they respect
that and we become their stability so to speak while they're being treated with an investigational therapy i see
what's being done out there in the industry to try and help these people and without the research nurse it
would be extremely difficult for we play a very important
Vital role in the accomplishment of that and when i go to bed at night i realize that and i sleep better at night i
just took a leap to do something that i've never done before but now that i'm here i see what a difference i'm
making i may make you know a patient able to see their first grandchild it's very rewarding you know we do
lose our patients too but i feel like i'm i am helping them through a very difficult time you