Questions for me Flashcards
What are the first 5 things you’d do in this position?
- get to know the team members individually–their styles, their interest, their experience and background
- get to know the physicians and generally how the team operates
- educate myself on current pancreatic cancer treatments and what’s next (CAR-T?)
- gain an understanding of solid tumor trials–similarities and differences from heme
- listen
Tell me about a time you had to learn something new very quickly.
i. MSK SIV and coordinating
When I started my CRC job, it was maybe my 2nd week here, I had a remote SIV for one of Dr. Schuster’s new observational trials. This was of course very early on in my onboarding, I was still trying to navigate just being a Penn employee and the online trainings, let alone sitting in an SIV as the study coordinator and understanding what they were talking about or asking us when I had never been in this position before. I remember furiously taking notes, and then studying the notes, asking Dr. Schuster way too many questions, and googling a lot of things! It was overwhelming, but my team and the Sponsor were supportive, and I was able to consent the first couple of patients with Dr. Schuster which was helpful. Within a couple of months I felt comfortable enough to consent patients on my own, which was also a new experience that I had to navigate—being in a room with a patient explaining a blood collection study without the crutch of a clinical teammate.
Tell me about a time it was easier to stay in your comfort zone than do something different.
i. staying at Athenaeum after graduating
I am definitely a creature of habit, and thoroughly enjoy my comfort zone most of the time. When I was an undergrad, I worked as a library and archives assistant at the Athenaeum, an art library, and was very comfortable with my coworkers and the environment. I struggled as I was nearing graduation with what to do next, do I go to grad school immediately? Do I work? Do I work somewhere else? My director could tell I was struggling with this decision, and wanted to keep me on as an employee after I graduated. I was offered a position as a full-time employee and remained for years, even while in my MPH program. Sometimes I do wonder how my path would have been different, or if I would have found myself in a health-related position sooner, had I looked outside of my comfort zone at the end of/right after college.
Tell me about a time you had to remain positive when faced with a significant challenge.
only experienced CRC in middle of pandemic
i. I would say the most significant challenge I’ve faced in my current role is being the only experienced CRC on our large team in the middle of a pandemic. We lost two experienced CRC’s in Spring 2020, and at the beginning of this year the only other experienced CRC left. It was kind of a shock to the system, being the mentor for two new CRC’s and being the sole coordinator to fill in where needed and being available to guide our liaisons and nurses who began taking over some CRC duties where possible. I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a time where I just sat there thinking, how is this going to work? How am I not going to burn out? I was able to remain positive by focusing on the most important part of our jobs, our patients, and with the endless support of my teammates and managers. We checked in daily with each other, offering to step in at a moment’s notice, and stayed open and honest with each other about how we were feeling and if we needed help. I always try to remember that everything is temporary!
Tell me about a time you worked with someone who was difficult to get along with.
Jasmine
i. When I was at the Athenaeum, there was another Temple student who was hired full time about a year after me as the front desk receptionist. Some of the offices were being renovated at this time, and I ended up shared the front office with her. She was very friendly and outgoing, and made a wonderful receptionist for a place where tourists and library members were constantly coming in and out of the building. There were also times where she didn’t have enough work to do, and always tried to fill that time by socializing with me while I was trying to get work done, and I became frustrated. I tried to find gentle ways to remind her that I needed to concentrate, or that I needed the office to be quiet for the afternoon while I made phone calls to our members. When that was not possible, I found ways to remove myself from the situation as to not taint our work relationship even more, such as working on a laptop elsewhere in the building.
Tell me about a time you had to vary your communication style for different audiences.
mentoring/guiding 4 new staff who learn differently
i. I’ve been mentoring new staff on our team for a little over 3 years now, and I have definitely had to adjust the way I communicate when explaining certain responsibilities or processes from one new CRC or DM to the next. Everyone has their own learning style. For example, I’m an incredibly visual learner, and I learned the most during my onboarding period by standing next to my mentor and actuallydoing the task alongside them a couple of times. Most recently on the lymphoma team, we had 3 CRCs and 1 DM start around the same time. They all have different levels of experience and different learning styles; I needed to communicate at length about the research side of things for those with more clinical experience, and vice versa for the new staff with research but no clinical experience. I was able to gauge pretty quickly which individuals preferred more oversight and direction while completing tasks for the first few times, and which individuals preferred to work more independently, and then batch questions or issues for a scheduled meeting.
Tell me about a time it was important for you to monitor your progress on a task/project.
14417 FDA audit readiness meetings/spreadsheet
i. I would say one of the biggest tasks I’ve been working on currently is ensuring we are audit-ready for Dr. Schuster’s Genentech trial, due to the potential for an FDA audit. We have upwards of 30 patients and it’s a complicated, high-toxicity trial with an overwhelming amount of source documentation. At this stage, I am meeting regularly with Tanya and the study team to address potential issues and discuss what areas we need to focus on. Currently, it’s a team effort to ensure the patient binders are all audit-ready and that the patients on active treatment or FU have their binders updated in real time, asap after the visits. I created a master spreadsheet with task lists, source document checklists to use against each patient binder, and a detailed listing of the patient binders so the entire study team can stay up-to-date on our progress
Tell me about a time when you had to handle a complaint from a patient or patient’s family
SMM and wife reimbursement
i. This isn’t a complaint/issue I handled alone, I handled it together with my study RN, but the first situation that comes to mind is a patient a few years ago was being seen in CHPS for a treatment visit. His wife was with him. The patient had been on this study treatment for maybe a couple of months at the time and hadn’t yet received any study reimbursement for approved travel expenses, but was aware from my previous discussions with him that the reimbursement was not very generous and was a capped per visit amount. The study required frequent visits for the first couple of months, and the patient’s co-pays and other relevant costs not covered by the study, were adding up. The patient and his wife became irate at this particular visit, directing their anger at myself and the study RN, that they could not see the contract or other agreements between Penn and the study Sponsor and that they were being “used as a specimen”, that we were hiding things from them and they were going to get a lawyer. The study RN and I did our best to calmly explain to the patient and his wife that we were not hiding anything, went over the sections of the consent form that mentioned travel reimbursement and costs not covered by the study, and reminded them that they were in an infusion unit where other patients were receiving treatment and that this conversation could continue privately elsewhere. We reassured the patient that all patients on this study were offered the same amount of reimbursement, and that no patient, and even ourselves as the study team, did not have easy access to initial agreements or legal/contract documents for this study. We understood that this was a situation that the PI and our manager needed to be looped in to, so we asked the patient if we could finish the visit assessments and provide his phone number to these individuals to call him, and he agreed. We were not involved in that phone call but the patient was in much better spirits at his next visit and the issue did not come up again.
How would this role fit into your longer term goals?
Staying at Penn, leadership experience, weave PH and policy back in
i. I thoroughly enjoy working in research at Penn, so as of right now I hope to stay a Penn employee but begin gaining leadership experience. I would like to remain in the clinical research field, preferably oncology, whether I stay in adults or move back toward the pediatric side, but ultimately plan to weave my public health and policy/advocacy background into my oncology research experience in some way; I’m not sure if that will be at Penn or elsewhere but that’s down the road a little bit!
Is there anything we should know about you that’s not on your resume?
i. SSC certificate is in process (was supposed to actually be completed this week but they cancelled the final course I need to take until the Spring!), and I’m currently preparing to take the CCRP exam, scheduled for 12/6
What area or skill would your supervisor say you can improve in?
i. Not asking for assistance as much or as early as I need to, strong determination to figure something out on my own when I have the help available. Not wanting to burden others
What would your supervisor say some of your strengths are?
organized, flexible, willing to help
i. Highly organized and able to remain organized while multi-tasking and juggling study tasks
ii. Flexible: changing my schedule that day to assist with screening a surprise patient, prepping and processing tubes, assisting other teammates with urgent needs such being trained and delegated for another PI’s study in order to assist with backlog of data entry for a major data lock, prioritizing that data over my own tasks
iii. Always willing to help no matter what else is on my plate
What kind of value could you add to this position?
Familiarity with CRU, solid foundation of knowledge and skills gained over last 5 years, mentoring
i. Being familiar with working in the unit for the last 5+ years, I would bring all of the clinical research and interpersonal skills I have gained thus far and would be well-positioned to provide guidance to coordinators and nurses on a variety of issues, from patient-related, to data concerns, to troubleshooting internal issues like balancing workloads and maintaining good relationships with teammates.
what appeals to you about this position?
leadership experience, staying at a research institution like Penn, becoming more involved in other aspects of trials, CAR-T in solid tumors and gaining solid tumor experience
i. Leadership experience
ii. CRC experience and knowledge will carry over, including needing to step in due to coverage needs or heavy workloads of the team members. I am also very familiar with the unit, ACC, and the departments we collaborate with here, which will undoubtedly be helpful in taking on not only a new role but a role where others will look to me for guidance or solutions.
iii. I also prefer to remain at a research institution like Penn at this point in my career.
iv. I’d like to learn more about and be involved in the study start-up process, contracts and budgeting, invoicing, site selection, helping to build a team’s portfolio, working with collaborative depts during start-up, assessing feasibility, etc.
v. I also know that we are starting to explore CAR-T trials in solid tumors; earlier this year we assisted the pancreas PM, RN and CRC with questions they had about their Bellicum CAR-T study, and offered shadowing for a JCAR infusion of ours. I think my experience working on CAR-T trials may additionally be helpful for the current or future study portfolio, if this is the direction pancreas cancer research is headed in.
What about the transition from public health to clinical research? What drew you to onc research?
i. For one, the personal experience with losing my dad at such a young age, but I also became involved in the Colon Cancer Coalition’s annual Get Your Rear in Gear events, leading a team and helping to raise funds and awareness for colon cancer research. I also after graduating with my MPH knew that I wanted to gain clinical research experience in a position with a decent amount of patient contact, so a CRC position in the CRU was ideal.
