Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist Jacqui Galloway is one of CUH’s few specialist research nurses. She describes working in research as a demanding – but rewarding – job.
The pace is fast; the hours are long, and a great deal of flexibility is needed. But the variety of work, the knowledge and expertise that I have developed and the impact that I can have on my patients make everything more than worthwhile.
Jacqui Galloway
For Jacqui, her patients – and the relationships that she is able develop with them – are key: ‘I enjoy the patients and what I can do for them. I can use my nursing skills to make their research journey a happy one,’ she says. Seeing patients frequently during a trial means she can build up a good rapport with them and – most importantly – gain their trust. She believes that patients who take part in research trials are offered an opportunity for continuity of care that is not available through routine NHS treatment.
Jacqui’s passion will always be research and she urges more staff – including nurses and allied health professionals – to consider the possibilities of research within their careers. For the right person, working in research offers many rewards, such as the opportunity to develop unparalleled expertise in the use of new products – and then helping to mainstream them – and accessing new treatments for patients on compassionate grounds.
Since joining CUH in 2014 Jacqui has developed her team which is now recognised for high-quality recruitment and retention of good patients into research trials.
We are ambassadors; we will promote a career in research to everybody. And I will encourage my patients to join trials for as long as I am a nurse.
Jacqui Galloway
One of her current projects - gene editing trials for patients with Hereditary Angioedema – saw Jacqui working with the CUH Communications Team to publicise promising phase I results. See Gene-editing offers hope for people with hereditary disorder | CUH
Jacqui’s team is currently expanding and will soon have six staff. They came into research from a diverse range of backgrounds. One member, for example, started work in admin and is now completing her nursing degree.
It can, however, be difficult to recruit the right type of person into a research environment.
Firstly, they should be passionate about patients, but they should also care deeply about research and have the right personality to work with our team and dynamic.
Jacqui Galloway
She stresses that undertaking a research project during a nursing degree does not equate to the reality of everyday life within the research environment.
Jacqui’s own route into research came about by accident. ‘This is very common in nursing. The possibility of research is not exactly something you are told about when qualifying,’ she explains. Her first job was working for a large pharmaceutical company on phase I clinical trials. In this role, she administered the first capsule in the world of a drug that became know as 'saquinavir' to a patient. As one of the first HIV protease inhibitors, saquinavir was to help change the treatment of HIV infection. ‘Some of the drugs that I first worked on are now commonplace,’ says Jacqui. ‘I got to use them from the start and so developed an expertise in their use.’