Research Position at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia

Position: Research Assistant for Inst For Drug Alcohol Stud

Key Responsibilities/Accountabilities

The Research Assistant will be performing the following duties

• Subject recruitment, including placement of IRB-approved fliers and media advertisements about research studies being conducted at IDAS, as well as collection and computer entry of responses and information furnished by potential research volunteers.
• Collection of informed consent from research volunteers, including describing the study to research participant candidates in simple language, and overseeing the signing of consent and assent forms.
• Biological data collection, including collection and testing of urine drug samples using test kits as well as administration of breathalyzer assessment of alcohol intoxication.
• Psychometric data collection, including administration, collection and scoring of participant self-report questionnaires, semistructured clinical interviews, and other psychometric and clinical assessments (e.g., Clinical Opioid Withdrawal Scale (COWS), Addiction Severity Index, etc), as well as administration and recording of computer-driven cognitive performance tasks.
• Coordinate and management system for ongoing tracking of subjects (e.g., via RedCap), including generating reminder phone calls/emails/texts for study visits, coordinating study visits to coincide with existing clinical visits, in busy clinical environments, etc.
• Accurate and secure transmission and storage of study data, including centralized databases or to physically-secured case report forms for multi-site clinical trials.
• Accurate calculation of subject compensation. As part of the assessment, the employee will have to coordinate a busy study visit for the subjects, including escorting research volunteers to and from the different study sites and waiting rooms.

Requirements

The ideal appointee for the position of Research Assistant at Virginia Commonwealth University must have the following qualifications

• Computer skills including word processing, data entry, spreadsheet, database management, and entry-level statistical/programming skills required.
• Clinical skills, including fundamental clinical skills such as establishing rapport, maintaining participant motivation, empathic responding, ability to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team, and ability to use clinical judgment in (rare) emergency situations.
• Organizational skills, including the understanding of HIPAA regulations. Ability to organize meetings, and present reports. The ability to work in a diverse environment is required.
• This position requires periodic evening/weekend hours. Applicants must be willing/able to work evenings/weekends when needed.

Virginia Commonwealth University is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States.