Nurses as members of institutional review boards

Abstract

NCREASINGLY, nurses serve as members of institutional review boards (IRBs), committees whose charge is to review whether the benefits of proposed institutional research outweigh the risks and to ensure that investigators have explained the protocol sufficiently to allow subjects to give informed consent. Understanding the roles of the nurse as a member of a hospital's IRB can provide valuable insight for nurses who are appointed to serve on this committee, for directors of nursing who need to quantify the nursing resources used to support the research mission of the hospital, and for nurse investigators seeking IRB approval. The nurse IRB member may represent the hospital's nursing department, a school of nursing affiliated with the hospital, or a hospital department other than nursing. For the purpose of this report, the roles of the nurse who represents the nursing department will be explored. The authors, who are nursing department representatives on the IRBs of two academic medical centers, will provide a brief review of the literature concerning the role of IRBs and nurses who serve on these committees. The responsibilities of the nurse as an IRB member and as a representative of a nursing department will be discussed.