Job summary
- Main area
- Corporate
- Grade
- Band 3
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 435-C079-25
- Employer
- East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust - Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospitals
- Town
- Blackburn
- Salary
- £24,937 - £26,598 pro rata per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 09/11/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 19/11/2025
Employer heading
Research Support Officer
Band 3
At East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust our vision is to be widely recognised for providing safe, personal and effective care. We currently provide high quality services and treat over 600,000 people across East Lancashire and the surrounding area. We employ over 9,500 staff, many of whom are internationally renowned and have won awards for their work.
Job overview
We are looking for an enthusiastic and meticulous team player, preferably with experience working in a healthcare admin setting, to join our cancer research team as a Research Support Officer (RSO).
The RSO role is unique! It incorporates general administrative office duties with laboratory and in-person clinic support. It also involves extensive liaison with both East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) colleagues and departments and external research personnel.
You will be one of three RSOs supporting our cancer research nurses to recruit patients to oncology studies at Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospitals.
The RSO team is currently being restructured and the post will in future also encompass the Women's and Children's Health, and the Acute and Chronic Conditions research teams.
Main duties of the job
Main duties of the job:
- Providing accurate and timely administrative support to the rest of the team
- Assisting research nurses with patient visits in clinic
- Processing and shipment of laboratory samples
- Collecting and entering clinical research data into electronic or paper case report forms from clinic visits and health records
- Ensuring all research activity complies with legislation, local Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Good Clinical Practice (GCP) requirements
- Working with the wider clinical research team to prepare and review study documentation in preparation for audit and regulatory inspection
- Ensuring good working relationships with the research teams based across the Trust
Required skills and qualities: - Organising and prioritising your own time effectively
- Communicating in a friendly and professional way with all internal and external personnel involved with running clinical research studies
- Flexibility and ability to take the initiative are a must in order to support our patients.
Working for our organisation
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is committed to being nationally recognised as an outstanding provider of innovative high-quality research in support of safe, personal and effective care. As a Trust we want to recruit, develop and retain skilled and motivated people to maintain a high performance culture.
Our R&D department has three delivery teams - Cancer, Women's and Children's Health, and Acute & Chronic Conditions.
The advertised role is initially based within the cancer team, but in the future will cover all three teams.
Our Cancer Research team consists of five nurses, three RSOs and one study coordinator/data manager. We work closely together to deliver high quality research studies to East Lancashire's patient population. Some of the studies that our patients are currently being offered cover prostate, breast, lung, bladder, colorectal, head and neck, and skin cancer.
Our patients are seen at two main sites - Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Teaching Hospitals, and there is an expectation to work at both sites to support cancer research activities.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Your responsibilities will include:
- Working closely with other RSOs to provide ongoing study administrative support, including new study set-up and archiving of completed studies
- Providing support for research nurses in clinic
- Contact with patients in clinic and over the phone
- Using research-specific databases (including EDGE) to record research participant data
- Taking responsibility for processing and shipping of research samples
- Maintenance of site files and research databases
- Data entry and query resolution
- Promotion of cancer research, both online and at events
The Job Description attached provides a more detailed list.
If you feel that your experience and skills fit those described, we encourage you to apply to join our team.
Please do ensure that you demonstrate within your application how you meet each of the essential and desirable criteria described within the Person Specification.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- GCSE English & Mathematics Level 4 (C grade) or above
- NVQ 3 / two A-levels or equivalent
Desirable criteria
- Evidence of continuing professional development
- Previous Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training
Other
Essential criteria
- Willing to work across different hospital sites
Experience
Essential criteria
- Maintaining accurate records and documentation
- Handling confidential data
Desirable criteria
- Collaboration with a variety of staff at different levels within an organisation
- Working in a health environment involving patient contact
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Competent in standard IT packages
- Excellent attention to detail and highly organised
- Good written and verbal communication skills
- Previous experience of, or willing to train in the processing, handling and shipment of human samples
Desirable criteria
- Familiarity with research administration
- Familiarity with NHS systems
Personal Attributes
Essential criteria
- Proactive, problem-solving attitude
- Can manage own workload independently
- Flexible approach, to effectively respond to the needs of the team
Desirable criteria
- Able to deal with difficult situations with sensitivity
Applicant requirements
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Philippa Springle
- Job title
- Oncology Research Study Coordinator/Data Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01254 733299
- Additional information
Informal visits to find out more about the role are welcomed and recommended - please contact Philippa on 01254 733299 between 8am - 4pm Monday - Friday.
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