With the rigorous demands for consistency in intervention imposed by clinical research, the NIH Clinical Center is staffed at a level to assure optimal clinical care as well as consistency and accuracy of data collection. Our nurses fully participate in patient treatment planning and discussions of research results.
Practicing nurses come to the Clinical Center from diverse backgrounds in education, management and clinical expertise. Nurses may select roles in several areas:
- Research support for any of NIH's 27 Institutes and Centers such as the National Cancer Institute, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
- Clinical research support in departments such as Transfusion Medicine, Perioperative Medicine, Imaging Sciences, and Critical Care Medicine,
- Staff and leadership functions such as clinical research nurse, clinical educator, nurse consultant, nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, research nurse, nurse practitioner, and nurse anesthetist.
Nursing Department Annual Reports
The Clinical Center Environment
The Clinical Center, located on the NIH main campus in Bethesda, MD, supports the intramural research programs of each NIH institute. Patients come from both domestic and international locations to participate in research protocols at the Clinical Center. Clinical research nurses provide wide ranging support for these protocols through activities such as:
- Clinical care in support of patients participating in research
- Patient education about the research protocols
- Data collection, entry and analysis
- Investigational drug administration
- New idea generation and clinical study design
- Dissemination of research findings
How We Are Different from Other Hospitals
- A 200-bed hospital solely dedicated to biomedical research
- Patient care units and outpatient clinics support hundreds of active research protocols
- No obstetrical, emergency or trauma departments