If you are considering a career in research, you might realize that becoming a CRA (clinical research coordinator) would be the perfect fit for you!
Once you start research you might have come to the realization that not only is there minimal information on what the job actually is but what it takes to become one.
I started out the same way!
My friend had told me how he had heard CRA’s can earn over six figures and get to travel.
This piqued my interest and wanted to know more about what CRA’s do on a day to day basis and how I could potentially obtain this job.
However, there wasn’t much information online about this profession or any other career in clinical research.
I had found a few articles about clinical research in general and a few people who had posted on reddits. Besides that I was still left wondering what a CRA even is!
Getting to travel and getting paid six figures was enough for me to want to pursue this path.
But how would I get there if there was no one I could watch on youtube, tiktok or anyone blogging about it? (Hence why I decided to create this blog!)
I knew that if they were getting paid above six figures it was probably hard work! And it probably required a certain amount of experience and expertise in a field I knew nothing about!
I had completed my pre-med requirements and decided that medical school wasn’t a decision I should follow through with. I completed my Masters in Medical Sciences and decided that I would go into research.
From the little information I found on the internet it seemed like it wasn’t possible to become a Clinical Research Associate (CRA) without working your way up.
However, a few people on reddit commented how you could achieve this but it would be difficult.
Before we go into whether or not you can become a clinical research associate without experience. We should briefly go into what a CRA actually is.
What is a Clinical Research Associate?
A clinical research associate (CRA) is part of a team of clinical research professionals who work in bringing new drugs and medical devices into the market.
As a CRA your role can vary depending on the company you are employed by. However these are some of the tasks you might be in charge of performing:
- Making sure that clinical research sites are capable of carrying out a specific study
- Ensuring that clinical sites are correctly carrying out clinical studies based on the protocol
- Training staff on the study protocol and ensuring they are up to date on any amendments
- Meeting with the study team and acknowledging any concerns
- Making sure that recruitment goals are being met
- Keeping track of investigational product inventory
If you are just starting to do your research the above might not make any sense and it can feel overwhelming. However, my hopes are that this blog will help you gain at least a basic understanding of the industry and can help you launch your career.
Now that we have a basic understanding of the tasks they might be responsible for, you can see why they are required to travel. CRA’s are assigned clinical research sites all over the United States. Clinical studies are awarded to sites that have the proper staff and equipment. These sites are all over the world and this means you might have to travel internationally. However, for the most part you will only be required to visit sites in a specific region. All of this will depend on the company that you work for.
Why do clinical research associates get paid so much??
They are also compensated over six figures because there is a lot of responsibility as a CRA. Their employer as well as the pharmaceutical company who is developing the new drug is entrusting you to make sure it is run smoothly over many clinical sites. You are essentially their eyes and ears and are required to report back to them with any issues.
New medications can have side effects and these might not be well known depending on the stage of development they are in. These have to be closely tracked and can affect how the study is run and ultimately the safety of the research subjects. Even though as a CRA you are not directly providing the medication to the subject you have to keep track of potential side effects, escalate the issue and hopefully prevent anything further from occurring.
Hopefully, I didn’t lose you and you would still like to learn more and have a rewarding career as a CRA. Now that we have briefly covered what CRA’s do, why they travel and why they earn over six figures, let’s dive into whether or not you can obtain the job without experience.
As a CRA you are being trusted with a clinical research study that is being carried out at many sites. You will have to constantly learn and adapt each time you are assigned a new study and each time a protocol is amended.
Should you become a Clinical Research Associate without experience in clinical research?
Personally I would not suggest becoming a clinical research associate as your first research career.
Are there companies that might take similar healthcare experience, an advanced degree in your field as adequate qualifications?
Yes, but it is going to be a big learning curb if you are starting from zero. Even if you are a quick learner, you have the discipline and are determined. Clinical research is different from working at a clinic or hospital or any other healthcare career. So even though having experience in healthcare is something I would recommend, I think that you should still start a clinical research site and work your way up.
There are so many things that you will learn as a clinical research technician, a clinical research coordinator and eventually a clinical research manager.
Even though I’m sure you wished the answer was yes, you can be a clinical research associate without experience. It wouldn’t be beneficial to skip over valuable lessons that you can only acquire by working your way up.
However, it doesn’t mean that it will take you ten years to become a CRA
All this means is that you will achieve it based on how comfortable you are in your research role. If you start out as a clinical research technician and you master this career path, you can be promoted to a clinical research coordinator within six months. If you do that for a year or so you can again become promoted until you have enough experience to make the jump to becoming a CRA.
The whole time you will be learning and developing your skill. You will also be earning a comfortable salary. So there really isn’t a rush.
However, if you are still set on skipping everything and you would like to become a CRA as your first research career, you have a lot of self learning to do!
Hopefully this blog will be a resource that you can use to understand the lingo, brush up on healthcare, get a broad understanding of the field and ultimately allow you to be comfortable applying and interviewing!