Research Support Assistant | Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Posting date:	24 June 2025
Salary:	Not specified
Additional salary information:	£24,625 - £25,674 Per Annum
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	24 July 2025
Location:	Southport, PR8 6PN
Company:	St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Job type:	Contract
Job reference:	7300305/409-7191138-A

Summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 3, Research Support Officer to jointhe Research Development and Innovation Team at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This is a fixed term post for a 12 month period.

The purpose of this post is to provide comprehensive support to the Clinical Research Delivery team. The assistant will be expected to perform a variety of clerical/research duties within a research environment and in such a way as to make a direct and positive contribution to the organisation of the work aiding the research nurses and wider clinical delivery team to maximise the effective use of their time

Experience of using computers for word-processing and data entry is essential. The ability to work of part of team is also required for this post.

If you are a dynamic person with a real interest in research, we would encourage you to apply for the position.

(This vacancy may close earlier than expected depending on the number of applications)

The post holder will be a member of the Research Development & Innovation Department. Providing key research services to Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS Trust – predominantly Southport and Ormskirk hospitals.

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:
• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

KEY DUTIES
• Provide support to all Research Nurses as and when needed including:
• Registration of study file and documentation, including local reference
• Work closely with PIs and research teams throughout the duration of a study to facilitate study progress, identifying barriers to successful recruitment and reporting these to RDI Manager.
• Be main point of contact for internal personnel and external organisations, resolving most queries independently or referring on to the most appropriate member of staff as appropriate.
• Collection of patient data from medical notes and completion of both electronic and paper case report forms (CRF’s), liaison with Research Nurse and clinicians to ensure correct data collection. Responsible for quality control, checking validity and completeness of the data.
• Submit requested data to the Trial Centres, ensuring that all data is validated by the Research Nurse and that all data is processed, accurate and delivered within their target dates.
• Liaise with all other departments within the hospital, i.e. wards, medical outpatient departments, medical records etc. with regard to all aspects of patient care, e.g. Appointments, investigations etc.
• Retrieval of medical records, investigation reports, etc.
• Take action to obtain or correct missing or contradictory data while maintaining confidentiality.
• Recording/reporting of patient recruitment and completion of studies.
• Contact research participants to arrange appointments with Investigator/Research Nurse as and when required by Research Nurses/Principal Investigators
• Create study specific screening/recruitment logs and ensure data uploaded by researcher/nurse on a regular basis.
• Where necessary investigate and report related data anomalies to identify risks, implementing corrective actions where appropriate.
• Closing of the study, including arranging appropriate archiving of documentation
• Organise the attendance of research professionals at training and conference events where necessary, including travel arrangements and the payment of fees
• Co-ordinate & co-facilitate all aspects of the Research Team meetings.
• Arrange completion of Progress Reports for reporting to RDI or Ethics.
• Service meetings ensuring adequate facilities are booked in advance; agendas are prepared in good time, producing accurate and timely formal minutes, recording actions and progress through to completion.
• Assist with monitoring visits/meeting, booking venue, IT training, refreshments etc for all attendees.
• General clerical and office management duties including the maintenance of efficient filing and archiving systems
• Attend regular team meetings and provide regular updates and progress reports
• Demonstrate a continuous process of professional and personal development and maintain a high level of knowledge concerning research.
• Processing of study amendments, ensuring that appropriate approvals have been obtained, with support services being notified of any changes relevant to their area, and superseding all previous documentation
• General office duties, including taking documents for signature, scanning, photocopying and maintenance of efficient filing systems on behalf of Research Nurse / RDI Manager.
• Undertake any other duties deemed relevant to the post and grade.
• Receive and redistribute stationery orders and supplies – logging items received and reporting discrepancies.
• Delivering prescriptions to pharmacy and collecting trial medication.
• Collection, processing (including centrifugation, freezing, handling of dry ice) and shipping of biological specimens according to protocol requirements.
• Co-ordinating courier collections for blood samples and documents.
• Observe strict confidentiality in accordance with the Data Protection Act and Caldicott Principles.

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
• Adhere to the RDI Standard Operating Procedures
• Adhere to European Clinical Trials Directive, GCP (certificate renewal every 2 years), attending new training when certificate is due for renewal.
• Adhere to Department of Health Research Governance Framework (DH2005)

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES
• To ensure that a system is in place to track and respond to correspondence in a timely manner.
• Ensure the flexibility of projects if required to meet conflicting / changing requirements.
• Be responsible for ensuring accurate and timely compliance with internal and external requests for information e.g. clinical trials teams, and sponsors.
• To maintain e-mail and diary management to ensure the smooth running of the department e.g. correspondence with trial centres, panning patient appointments, follow up of care and liaise with the Research Nurses.

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSBILITIES
• To maintain a level of training and competency commensurate for the role according to Good Clinical Practice guidelines.
• Participate in an annual individual performance review.
• To conform to established policies, codes of practice and Standard Operating Procedures within the Department.
• To adhere to all established Trust policies and to adhere to all current legislation and DH guidelines.
• Attend regular team meetings and provide regular updates and progress reports
• Demonstrate a continuous process of professional and personal development and maintain a high level of knowledge concerning clinical research.


This advert closes on Tuesday 8 Jul 2025

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