Kirsty graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a degree in microbiology before joining the ICON Graduate Programme at University College Dublin in September 2013. She now works as CRA 1 within ICON and answers some questions about her work and role.

What’s your favourite thing about working for ICON?

The company is constantly evolving. They’re growing and improving in order to make it a great place to work for their employees, whilst also aiming to becoming the number one CRO of choice for clients.

What’s your favourite thing about the graduate programme?

The graduate programme gave me a great insight into the clinical trial industry as a whole. We got to spend a whole week learning about how trials are organised from a CRO’s perspective, as well as seeing things from the study team’s side of things. We also got to hear from some top consultants from the Mater Hospital and St. Vincent’s hospital on why clinical research is so important to their patients.

What’s an average day at work for you?

As a CRA, I am required to be onsite 2-3 days a week. The role involves 60% travel across the UK so I spend a lot of time on planes, trains and taxis, as well as visiting study teams at their research location. This is usually within a hospital, however some are on a GP site or at research centre depending on the study and patient population. When I am onsite, I am training study teams, verifying all the source documentation, checking informed consent, performing IP accountability, AE/SAE reconciliation and much more. When I’m in the office my average working day would be submitting monitoring visit reports, sending confirmations and follow up letters, following up on action items, booking travel and training.

What’s been your biggest achievement so far?

I was signed off on all types of monitoring visits within my first 6 months of being a CRA. This means that I was assessed and approved by CRA management to perform Pre Study Visits, Site Initiation Visits, Monitoring Visits and Close Out Visits. I was also promoted from Entry-Level CRA to CRA 1.

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