Laura Y

Age at interview: 39

Brief Outline:

Laura Y has been a research nurse for about four months. She likes that her job involves working “to improve things” and the working hours are much better than before. Laura Y hopes to continue in research and that her fixed-term contract will be extended.

Background:

Laura Y is a research nurse. She is in a relationship. Her ethnic background is White Italian.

More about me...

Laura Y has been a research nurse for about four months. She has worked as a nurse for 12 years in total – four years in her home country of Italy and the last eight years in the UK. For the last few years, she has worked in neurosurgery and neurointensive care. Laura Y has wanted to become a research nurse for the last two years: “I really, really, really liked the idea of working to something that is still unknown, that it could help to improve things”. When she worked on an intensive care ward, Laura Y had met research nurses and asked them about their topics. She thinks the work suits her personality as she likes observing things and being very organised. A major perk for Laura Y of her research nurse post is the working hours. She is relieved not to have any more irregular shifts and feels it has drastically improved her quality of life, especially her sleep. She sometimes has to work overtime but can then use the time in-lieu. When Laura Y was working as a ward nurse, she would often miss out on breaks and not be able to go to the toilet when needed; in contrast, working in research is better experience. However, Laura Y is on a fixed-term contract and moving from a permanent post was “a bit scary”. 

Laura Y works on a number of studies in the areas of breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. For some, she is the lead/main research nurse and for others she is a back-up/support nurse. Some of these studies were already running when Laura Y started in post and a few are in the process of being set-up. She has a Site Initiation Visit scheduled for one study and was surprised to hear that, despite the term suggesting it would be in-person, it would be conducted over telephone. In the studies, Laura Y’s role involves: identifying patients (by screening data, going to clinics and attending Multidisciplinary Team meetings), approaching patients about studies (if the consultants have not already done so), consenting patients and ensuring data collection (including from skin swabs and tissue removed during surgery). This latter aspect sometimes involves Laura Y going into surgery to ensure the correct equipment for the study is used. Laura Y thinks it is important to have good working relationships with clinical colleagues because “at the end of the day, we are using their facilities to do the study”. She has drawn on help from other nurses in finding a room to use for study activities.

Laura Y’s main source of training has been through shadowing other research nurses and asking her colleagues questions. She feels well-supported and likes the friendly environment she now works in. However, it was three months into her post before she undertook Good Clinical Practice training and she thinks this would have been helpful sooner. She had some training about the computer software used for research at her Trust about a month after starting her job, but it was “a bit pointless” by that time as she had already had to use it. Although Laura Y was used to communicating with patients and explaining things like clinical procedures to them, the nature of patient contact in research has been an adjustment. She felt she needed to develop a “quick but effective approach” whereas before on the neurointensive care ward as a clinical nurse “you had time to explain things and you were there with the patient, not going anywhere, so there was time”. Laura Y doesn’t wear a uniform in her current job and this is something she is “super happy” about – she also thinks that research nurses “are more approachable in our clothes […] because a uniform always creates […] a difference between you and the patient”.

Laura Y would very much like to stay working in research and hopes that her contract will be extended. She thinks that other nurses interested in a research post like hers need to be aware of the office-based and organisational activities involved. Laura Y would like the chance to work on some neurosurgery studies as this is her clinical background. In fact, Laura Y once had an experience when she was caring for a patient which led her to question whether a particular medicine was appropriate for some patients, and she would like to work on a study looking at this topic if one is available in the future.

Laura Y was very pleased that she didn’t have to wear a uniform in her research nurse job.

Do you wear a uniform?
 
No, thank god.
 
You're pleased about that?
 
Yes, super happy.
 
Why is that?
 
Well first, that I don’t have to waste some of my private time to get changed because usually, when I used to wear a scrub, I had to arrive earlier and spend at least 15 minutes before to get changed, or whatever.
 
And be there on time. And this is all free time that I'm giving to get changed and whatever, for nothing because you don’t get paid for that. So, in part because I actually prefer to wear my clothes. I think the scrubs are just awful. Yeh, they're comfy but they are awful and they smell sometimes, so I really don’t like it [laugh].
 
The third thing is that I think, on the patient perspective, I think is more a-, I feel like we are more approachable in our clothes than- not on a uniform, because a uniform always creates, to me, that’s the way I think, a sort of a difference between you and the patient.
 
Instead having your own clothes it's sort of-, it's like, you know, you're a bit more-, not one of them, but it's sort of you feel like be like a more of a normal person, not like someone with a uniform. But quite often people are intimidated by uniforms anyway. They get high blood pressure because of a uniform.

In one study, Laura Y had to go into theatre to observe a device being used by a surgeon.

One is a trial called [study name] and this trial basically looks at the possibility of using this device, which is this margin probe, to reduce the number of re-excisions. Yeah. Basically, I have to go to theatre if the patient gets randomised to the probe. Then the doctor will take the- , once they’ve been taking the specimen out to do all the procedures that needs to be doing in theatre, then we'll use this device onto the specimen and check whether there are still positive margins. And then if there are still positive margins, we'll have to take an extra shave.

Laura Y liked that she can take breaks and have lunch now she is working as a research nurse. This was not the case when she was ward-based.

And the same is for breaks. For example, now I always get to get my lunch or if I want to drink a cup of tea, I can have a cup of tea. Whereas before quite often we would just miss breaks and it was 12-hour shifts and, yeah, that’s quite a long shift.
 
Or you don’t have time to go to the loo. For example, is that now I get a chance whenever and if I need to go to the loo, I can go to the loo [laughs].
 
Yeh, yeh.
 
To me, this is amazing.