Claire Rischmiller, Lead Research Nurse
My role as Lead Research Nurse involves raising the awareness and the importance of mental health and dementia research by offering opportunities for people to take part. I support the set-up, feasibility and delivery of local, national and international research studies and clinical trials, collaborating with a wide variety of professionals and organisations. Research delivery continues hereon from opening to recruitment, collaborating with clinical teams and talking with potential participants offering opportunities to take part. Meeting participants in clinics, their home, by telephone or video call and collecting required outcome measures really is a privilege.
I have and continue to support the delivery of many different types of research including clinical trials, genetics, and research studies which seek to understand more about symptoms and lived experience. This research experience spans a wide range of people including for staff, carers, or people living with diagnoses such as dementia, mild cognitive impairment, psychosis, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, anxiety, depression, or learning disabilities.
Through research and listening to people’s life stories, we can better understand what contributes to maintaining a person’s mental wellbeing and how this can be enhanced. This curiosity drives me forwards to continually explore how we can improve future care and treatments.
Working in research with an inspirational team, completing my MSc in Clinical Research and welcoming new research colleagues, trust staff and students and interns has given me the opportunity to learn and question more about what we do, how and why. As a Research Nurse there is so much variety to learn and experience, even venturing into a Podcast on ‘NSFT’s Mental Health and You: Being a Research nurse at NSFT’, and it is a hugely rewarding and exciting career!