Congress Abstracts 2005

4

THE RESEARCH NURSES ROLE IN MAXIMIZING CLINICAL TRIAL ACCRUALS IN A COMMUNITY-BASED PRACTICE: A BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS. Vicki Tolbert, RN, BSN, OCN^®, Johnston-Willis Medical Center, Richmond, VA.

As new drugs and treatments are developed, their efficacy must be determined through patients’ responses. Therefore, accrual of patients to clinical trials is important in ensuring that the latest, safest and most effective treatments will be available.

Poor enrollment in clinical trials is readily acknowledged to be a problem in oncology especially in the community setting. This may be attributed to: reluctance of the patient, reluctance of the physician or lack of processes to support accruals. Utilization of a research nurse employed by a community hospital to assist with patient accruals in the oncologist’s office in a contactual situation may be the answer.

The purpose of this project was to develop strategies to improve recruitment to clinical trials in a community based oncology practice and thereby increase the percentage of patients enrolled in clinical trials in order to meet the American College of Surgeons (ACoS) research standards for accreditation.

Interventions included proactive identification of patients, creation of clinical trial specific patient screening forms, development of a monthly handout listing current clinical trials, providing information about clinical trials in the inpatient hospital packets, discussion of new clinical trials at regular staff meetings, and a small incentive program for clinic staff who identify potential patients.

During the past year, we were able to increase our clinical trials enrollment by 33%. This has allowed us to meet the research standard requirements for the American College of Surgeons accreditation.

Nursing strategies to increase enrollment should focus on increased communication and education of patients and healthcare providers. A research nurse can provide the patient with the opportunity to participate in cutting edge research, provide the hospital with accruals to meet the ACoS standards, and provide the physician’s practice with increased patient accruals. In addition, if more patients are enrolled in clinical trials, the time to trial completion will be shortened and thus drugs will be available for market production sooner.