Flex nurses provide specialized nursing support for protocols requiring subject participation outside the CRU inpatient and outpatient units.
Flex nurse participation in research projects has been especially important in the emotionally-charged intensive care setting where opportunities to enroll patients come and go quickly. Despite this, flex nurses have achieved a high success rate with consenting subjects (60-80%). This is largely attributable to their success in earning the trust of patients, families, and staff.
Flex nurses work primarily with studies conducted in the neonatal intensive care and newborn nurseries, the Mother/Baby care unit, and Labor & Delivery Unit at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. In addition, they assist with protocols in other areas of the hospital that cannot be conducted in the ITCS inpatient or outpatient areas, e.g., operating room, clinical procedure room and ICUs elsewhere. Our nurses have supported research conducted in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pathology, Speech and Hearing, Nursing, Allergy/Pulmonary, GI, Nutrition, Hematology, Radiology, Psychology, Family Practice departments, and Vaccine Trials.
The research laboratory/work area is located in the neonatal intensive care unit. Equipment available includes: creamatocrit, infant hugger for procedures, micro-sample centrifuge, MettlerBalance, oxygen/mixed air, and infant length board. We also have supplies required for infant blood sampling and for breast milk, urine, and stool collection.
Strauss, RG, Burmeister, LF, Johnson, K, Cress, G, Cordle, DG. Randomized Trial Assessing Feasibility and Safety of Biological Parents as Red blood Cell Donors for Their Preterm Infants. Transfusion, 40:450-56,1999.
Johnson KJ, Cress GA, Connolly NW, Burmeister LF, Widness JA. Neonatal laboratory blood sampling: comparison of results from arterial catheters with those from an automated capillary device. Neonatal Network, 19:27-34, 2000.
Strauss RG, Mock DM, Johnson K, Mock NI, Cress G, Knosp L, Lobas L, Schmidt RL. Circulating RBC volume, measured with biotinylated RBCs, is superior to the Hct to document the hematologic effects of delayed versus immediate umbilical cord clamping in preterm neonates. Transfusion, 43:1168-1172, 2003.
Bell EF, Strauss RG, Widness JA, Mahoney LT, Mock DM, Seward VJ, Cress GA, Johnson KJ, Kromer IJ, Zimmerman MB. Randomized Trial of Liberal Versus Restrictive Guidelines for Red Blood Cell Transfusion in Preterm Infants. Pediatrics, 2005;225;1685-1691.
Strauss RG, Mock DM, Johnson KJ, Cress GA, Burmeister LF, Zimmerman MB, Bell EF, Rijhsinghani A. A randomized clinical trial comparing immediate versus delayed clamping of the umbilical cord in preterm infants: short-term clinical and laboratory endpoints. Transfusion, 48:658-665, 2008.
Freise KJ, Schmidt RL, Gingerich EL, Veng-Pedersen P, Widness JA. The effect of anticoagulant, storage temperature and dilution on cord blood hematology parameters over time. Int J Lab Hematol. 2008.
Since 2006 flex nurses have also been active participants in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD Neonatal Research Network clinical trials
Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD Neonatal Research Network: https://neonatal.rti.org/
