Successful nursing in a Phase I environment: report from research nurse training day

Research nurses are a vital part of the ECMC network and last month (April), the Programme Office held a training day for research nurses who are new to working in early phase cancer research. The aim of the day was to equip new early phase research nurses to deliver high quality, patient-centred care, within the regulatory framework.  Twenty-five new research nurses were joined by eleven senior research nurses in Edinburgh to share their experiences and any apprehensions about such a demanding role.

The day was a great success with 77% of delegates finding it very useful and the rest stating it was useful.

“Very informative for nurses starting their career in early phase research – great to share experiences”

The structure of the day followed the life of a study; delegates considered their key relationships at their locations, busted common myths about early phase trials and discussed how to speak to patients coming off trials.  There were also presentations from an investigator and a data manager.

The day was designed to be very interactive with plenty of discussion and each delegate received a booklet which supported the training day by demonstrating how early phase cancer trials differ (or don’t) from later phase trials. By attending the training day, delegates could hear from other early phase research nurses (both new and experienced) area to find out how trials are run at their site and the challenges they face and have overcome. This aspect of the training day was highly praised in the feedback “great to share work stories about early phase trials, it’s a massive learning curve and a very different type of nursing”

Feedback from the day was very positive with some of attendees saying they better understood the "importance of nurses role as an advocate managing expectations” and the "importance of balancing protocol requirements and patient-centred care!"

The research nurse steering committee will be discussing next steps for this event. It’s clear that there is a need for some form of training for research nurses who are new to working in the early phase cancer research environment.