Aisling Corcoran

"The days following consisted of fantastic learning experiences. "

Aisling Corcoran
Clinical Nurse Manager 1 in Clinical Trials
St. James’s Hospital, Dublin

I am a Clinical Trials Nurse working in a busy Dublin teaching hospital. I have 5 years experience in Oncology and joined the Oncology Clinical Trials team in September 2006.

Our five and a half week experience at the NCI commenced in October 2007. On our arrival at the NCI, we were met by Georgie Cusack and Elizabeth Ness. We were orientated to the hospital, given maps, timetables and discussed our goals and objectives. We also had an overview on the Ireland-Northern Ireland-National Cancer Institute Cancer Consortium by Isabel Otero.

The days following consisted of fantastic learning experiences. We got a one-on-one library tour, going through the various databases including SCOPUS, REF MANAGER, END NOTE, QUOSA, WEB OF SCIENCE, OVID and CINAHL. We attended 6 of the 8, 3 hour ethics course sessions and covered topics such as: History of Human Subject Research, Conflict of Interest, Codes, IRB review, Ethical Issues in Study Design and Research with Children. The ethics for me was a highlight of the whole experience.

The NCI runs regular educational offerings which all nursing staff can attend, i.e. the Journal Club which is research focused, Brown Bag Lunch which is clinically focused and Nursing Grand Rounds which is evidence based and links the Theory-Practice gap.

During our time at the NCI, we got a tour of the Office of Communications. The official website was explained in detail to us by the project manager. We were also brought on a tour of Bigg's lab where we were shown the importance of PK analysis in our practice as Research Nurses.

Other learning opportunities consisted of attending the Creativity, Abstract Preparation, Support and Snacks (CAPSS) open house, where we were strongly encouraged to submit an abstract to the ONS. We attended an Advanced Oncology Education Series which looked at Surviving and Thriving in nursing today and also attended an ONS Chapter Meeting: Bone Issues. We attended a PRMC meeting which is a scientific review meeting of new protocols before going to the IRB, an IRB meeting and got a talk and a tour on CTEP.

What was very beneficial as a junior Research Nurse was the Online Self Learning Modules, which went through a series of topics including Clinical Trial Design and Protocol Development, Managing Data in Clinical Research and much much more. A MUST for anyone starting out in clinical trials!

Overall, I had a fantastic experience and would strongly recommend this Training to Nurses wishing to pursue a career in Clinical Trials.