Nurse Shares Insights on Creating Oncology Clinical Research Rotations for Nursing Students

Описание: Colbi Carr, BSN, RN, a nurse in the Clinical Research Thoracic Unit at Fox Chase Cancer Center, joined Cancer Nursing Today at the 50th Annual Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Congress to share insights from her presentation on oncology clinical research rotations for undergraduate nursing students.
“My primary role is to recruit patients for clinical trials… It's an exciting role,” Carr said. “I think there's a lot of opportunity here to get more exposure to what we do and to bring more nurses into this field, and that’s where our project started.”
The pilot program at Fox Chase Cancer Center aims to allow students to shadow oncology clinical researchers and gain firsthand experience in the field. Carr explained that she got involved when she received an email seeking mentors for nursing students who would be doing internships.
“I was a tutor in nursing school, I always liked working with the students and helping them grow, so I jumped on the opportunity,” she said.
Carr was excited to learn that a fourth-year baccalaureate nursing student from a local university was interested in an oncology nursing clinical research rotation. The student did a 120-hour clinical rotation that included work in thoracic, women’s health, genitourinary, and gastrointestinal disease sites in Fox Chase’s Office of Clinical Research and ambulatory care clinic.
The student had various experiences during the rotation, including reviewing treatment protocols, prescreening and consenting patients, enrolling participants, getting involved in site-initiation visits, and observing multidisciplinary tumor boards. Carr explained why these experiences are important for nursing students who are considering different career options and trajectories.
“There's not really a lot of exposure to this field in nursing school,” Carr said. “Students don't know that this is an opportunity for them.”
Creating opportunities for nursing students to learn about clinical research is a critical part of building and maintaining the workforce for clinical trials, she said.
“The clinical trial staff is crucial for developing these therapies that will then become standard of care treatments down the road,” Carr said. “If we don't expose nurses or future aspiring nurses to this opportunity early, they just never know that the opportunity is there.”
Carr explained potential ways the program could expand to reach more students and address potential misconceptions surrounding clinical research opportunities. For example, many nursing students believe that an advanced degree is required, but “that's just not the case in clinical trials,” she said.
“I think we need to start by getting into their research lectures and their evidence-based practice lectures and talking a little bit more about this opportunity,” Carr said, explaining that she hopes to see the program expand to allow summer externships and reach more students.
Beyond reaching more students, it’s also important to have oncology clinical research nurses interested in sharing their expertise and experiences.
“To bring students into this field, you need the nurse mentors to want to do it also,” Carr said. “I would be happy to be a resource for anybody that's interested in doing this because I think that it's exciting and it's a great opportunity.”
Overall, Carr emphasized that giving nursing students opportunities to get experience with clinical trials and research is critical for the entire field of medicine.
“Our goal always is to find better treatments for patients,” Carr said. “We want to give them a better quality of life, we want to give them longer survival, but we can't find new treatments without clinical trials, and we can't do clinical trials without the clinical trial staff.”