Research RN – Magnet Program and Research Department

Why UT Southwestern?

With over 75 years of excellence in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, UT Southwestern is committed to excellence, innovation, teamwork, and compassion. At UT Southwestern, we invest in you with opportunities for career growth and development that align with your future goals and help to provide security for you and your family. Our highly competitive benefits package offers healthcare, PTO and paid holidays, on-site childcare, wage, merit increases and so much more that are all available on the day you start work. 

Ranked by Forbes as one of the Top 10 National Employers, we invite you to be a part of the UT Southwestern team where you’ll discover teamwork, professionalism, and consistent opportunities for growth.

Job Summary

Join UT Southwestern as a Research Nurse in the Center of Nursing Excellence, Magnet® Program & Research Department.  As UT Southwestern’s main institutional hub for nursing research, quality improvement, and evidence-based practice, you will have the opportunity to join a team of peers with a wide-range of experiences to conduct a variety of specialty research studies and nursing projects directly with our talented and patient focused bed-side nurses. At UT Southwestern, exploring your interests and advancements in your career are highly encouraged. We invite you to be a part of the UT Southwestern Magnet Program & Research team where your success is the team’s success.

Experience and Education

• Graduate of NLN (National League for Nursing) approved Nursing program, licensure as Registered Nurse by Board of Nurse Examiners for the State of Texas is required.
• Two years clinical nursing experience required. Clinical research nursing experience is highly desirable but not required.
• May substitute relevant clinical research experience for clinical nursing experience on one-on-one basis.
• Certification(s): Current Basic Life Support (BLS) certification through a course accredited by the American Heart Association (AHA) or American Red Cross (ARC) is required.
• Experienced project and research coordinator preferred
• Experienced project designing and executing Quality Improvement (QI) projects, Evidenced-Based Practice (EBP) projects, and Research Studies in the past 5 years preferred
• Very strong skills in IRB and research compliance experience preferred
• ABSNC^® Nursing Specialty Certifications or CCRC® Certification preferred

Job Duties

Nursing: 

• Performs nursing care, nursing assessment, and data collection for clinical research studies.
• May provide working direction for research activities to nursing staff and/or other non-licensed medical or office support personnel.
• Assists in resolving problems relating to patient care and acts as a liaison between the research team and other institutional stakeholders.
• Gives counsel to patients with respect to medical conditions and provides appropriate guidance related to research activities, per the study protocol or under the supervision of the principal investigator. 5.
• in developing procedures for inpatient and outpatient research activities, follows protocols in the scheduling of tests and procedures; may administer experimental and non-experimental medication and procedures under physician/principal investigator guidance Patient and study management:
• Recruits patients for research studies ensuring subject eligibility, screens patients, tracks patients’ data and explains the study purpose and content of each study.
• Duties performed may include one or more of the following core functions:
  • a) Directly interacting with or caring for patients. 
  • b) Directly interacting with or caring for human-subjects research participants.
  • c) Regularly maintaining, modifying, releasing, or similarly affecting patient records (including patient financial records);
  • d) Regularly maintaining, modifying, releasing or similarly affecting human-subjects research records.
• Obtains informed consent and follows the proper consenting process for patients and/or family members.
• Monitors and evaluates patients involved in research studies within scope of practice, including their response to therapy or intervention. 
• May assist in inventory of investigational medication, devices or approved medication for each protocol and acts as liaison between investigator pharmacy as each protocol requires, as per protocol requirements. Data and regulatory management:
• May train other research nurses in specialized skills and knowledge necessary to perform variety of basic and complex research data collection and nursing care; may provide in-service education to staff members as appropriate.
• May assist in clinical research data collection for pharmaceutical studies, Federal studies, or investigator-initiated studies in patient records (paper and electronic), sponsors documents (electronic and paper) and other forms for data collection, such as: medical histories, data collection of patients’ charts for retrospective review studies, patient physiologic performance results and laboratory determinations, calculations of derived information, and maintenance of general research protocols and complex protocols. May also report information to other physicians, institutional stakeholders and granting agencies. 
• May collect, label, store and/or ship blood, serum, urine, and other specimens for analysis per the protocol requirements.
• Documents and updates the physician and sponsors on the condition of the study participants including possible side effects of therapy.
• Reports adverse events through appropriate sources per the policy of the protocol and the University Institutional Review Board (IRB) regulations. 16.
• May assist in organizing and preparing collected data for subsequent publication as appropriate.
• May coordinate, as per the requirements of the study team, regulatory aspects for each study, which may include but is not limited to budgets, contracts, IRB submissions, maintenance of critical regulatory documents and other required committee submissions.
• May assist in internal and/or external audit requests.
• Occasionally, attends and participates in out-of-town meetings or scientific conferences as a representative of the research team.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Work requires use of considerable judgment in application of procedures, nursing assessment techniques, practices, and policies to work problems, organization, and administration of research or outpatient clinic.
• Work requires frequent contact with physicians, residents, fellows, allied health personnel, affiliated institutions, and other medical and/or non-medical office support personnel to facilitate patient care and research data collection.
• Work requires the determination of methods or approaches to work problems.
• Requires a working knowledge of federal, state, and local laws and regulations governing research.
• Ability to provide “customer service focus”.
• Interpersonal and teamwork skills to contribute to objectives of organization.
• Adaptability/flexibility to react positively to changes in work environment.
• Initiative to improve productivity and quality of work.
• Ability to plan and organize work in logical and efficient manner.

Working Conditions

• Work is performed mostly primarily in clinical environment. The incumbent may be exposed to body fluids and infectious diseases.

To learn more about the benefits UT Southwestern offers, visit https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/employees/hr-resources/

This position is security-sensitive and subject to Texas Education Code §51.215, which authorizes UT Southwestern to obtain criminal history record information. UT Southwestern Medical Center is committed to an educational and working environment that provides equal opportunity to all members of the University community. As an equal opportunity employer, UT Southwestern prohibits unlawful discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, genetic information, citizenship status, or veteran status.