Clinical Research Nurses, an Untapped Resource of Nurse Researchers?

The clinical research nurse (CRN) workforce in the United Kingdom (UK) is considerable and has a level of expertise when it comes to delivering research in a healthcare setting. Yet these same individuals are often overlooked when it comes to developing future academic nursing research leaders within the UK. A group of current or former clinical research nurses (the authors), held a reflective discussion and asked themselves: "Are CRN's a potential untapped resource who could plug the gap in the academic researcher workforce?" This brief report presents our reflections from personal experiences, augmented by published evidence, to open a dialogue on the potential role of CRNs as academic nurse researchers. We concluded that while CRNs have the necessary aspirations, skills and attributes, there remain key barriers which require this group of nurses to rely on personal determination and persistence to become academic nurse researchers.