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| How to Get a Study Coordinator Job |
In general I have seen a variety of study coordinators with different backgrounds over the years. Some have entry level skills such as only a high school diploma or maybe they were a medical assistant. For CRCs at this level, the pay is often hourly and low. Often it is a large clinical research center that hires these CRCs or it is a private medical office that got into clinical research and had their office medical assistant also take on the role of becoming a study coordinator.
More often, CRCs have a college level degree. This could be a bachelors degree or a nursing degree. Nurses are often paid more just because they are trained to do more procedures. Sometimes, CRCs have advanced degrees but they are often in a management role too.
Getting a CRC job is often a paradox, To get a job you need experience, but the main way to have experience is to get a job. Very few places will hire you with no experience and train you. If they do train you often the job offers a lower hourly wage even with a college education.
One way to distinguish yourself is to learn how to speak the "language" of clinical research. If you can know a few key terms and concepts at the time of the interview, it will show that you have genuine interest in the field and an understanding of what is involved.
There are a few free resources that you can use to learn this information. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a certificate in Human Subjects Protection that is free. NIH also has another free certificate for Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training. A bonus in completing these programs is that you get a certificate of completion and can add it to your resume. In clinical research, staff keep their resumes/CVs on file as documentation that they are trained and qualified by experience to perform study tasks. By having this certificate, you are one step ahead. The certificate should take you a few hours to complete and is enough that you can start applying for entry level jobs.
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| How to Get a Clinical Research Study Coordinator Job |
If you want to improve your chances even more then I recommend taking additional classes. HarvardX offers an archived online "Fundamental in Clinical Research" class. I have not taken it but it looks extensive and helpful plus it is free! I participated in a paid certificate program for "Clinical Trials Design and Management" through UC, San Diego Extension. If you quickly want to learn medical terminology and a basic overview of clinical research then I recommend you take their first two entry courses.
All this will make you sound like more of a research industry insider so the terms like ICH, GCP, CRF, EDC, ICF, 21CFR, CRO, etc. don't intimidate you and will make you a more qualified Clinical Research Coordinator/ Study Coordinator candidate who gets the job!
Read this blog article if you want to learn more about the Clinical Research Coordinator/ Study Coordinator job description and details.
Article by Laurel Latto, Certified Clinical Research Associate (CCRA)
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