What we do here changes the world. UTHealth Houston is Texas’ resource for healthcare education, innovation, scientific discovery, and excellence in patient care. That’s where you come in.
We are looking for a Full-Time Research Assistant II to join the UTHealth School of Public Health - Brownsville Regional Campus (Edinburg, TX). This position would support various research projects at the campus. In this position, you will conduct activities to oversee the enrollment of study participants and ensure efficient and high-quality collection and entry of data.
Once you join us you won't want to leave. It’s because we reward our team for the excellent service they provide. Our total rewards package includes the benefits you’d expect from a top healthcare organization (benefits, insurance, etc.), plus:
- 100% paid medical premiums for our full-time employees
- Generous time off (holidays, preventative leave day, both vacation and sick time – all of which equates to around 37-38 days per year)
- The longer you stay, the more vacation you’ll accrue!
- Longevity Pay (Monthly payments after two years of service)
- Build your future with our awesome retirement/pension plan!
We take care of our employees! As a world-renowned institution, our employees’ wellbeing is important to us. We offer work/life services such as...
- Free financial and legal counseling
- Free mental health counseling services
- Gym membership discounts and access to wellness programs
- Other employee discounts including entertainment, car rentals, cell phones, etc.
- Resources for child and elder care
- Plus many more!
Position Summary:
- Job location: Edinburg, TX, (UT- Rio Grande Valley at Edinburg; No travel to Mexico). In-person.
- Position: Full-time with benefits. In-person. Academic position supported by a research project.
- Research program: Tuberculosis (TB) is the 2nd most important microbial killer worldwide, and in the US, it is more prevalent in communities along the Mexican border. Our binational TB research program is coordinated from south Texas, and we have field sites on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border where we enroll new TB patients, their close contacts and community controls. Our goals are to: i) understand the epidemiology and biology for higher risk of TB in individuals with diabetes, HIV or old age; ii) understand how TB may accelerate biological aging; and iii) develop new TB diagnostic tools that are suitable for low-income settings.
- Certification for Protection of Human Research Subjects is required and must be complete within 5 days of employment.
Position Key Accountabilities:
- Research activities. Conducts research activities, under general direction, that include the oversight of field interviewers conducting participant recruiting and screening, data collection, entry and quality control. Interface between field interviewers and project director.
- Preceptor. Assist with recruitment of field interviewers; Provides training for enrollment and data entry procedures; Assess new hire learning progress; Provides clear and useful feedback to field team; Organizes a yearly workshop with field and senior research staff to review and update the field standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure similar protocols across field sites and interviewers.
- Monitor enrollment. Supervise the work of field teams to maintain or identify challenges with enrollment of new participants and their follow-up visits.
- Monitor timely and quality data entry by field team. Communicates with the field team to ensure efficient, timely and high-quality data entry and results. Coordinates a weekly virtual meeting with the field teams to review progress or challenges faced with enrollment, specimen collection and transport, data collection quality and entry. Works with the field teams to ensure the timely resolution of incorrect or missing data.
- Identified trends or deviations in data collection (data system superuser). Monitors data quality by visual inspection and complements by running programs for automatic detection of mistakes in skip patterns or missing data. Performs data quality analysis using established programming code to track trends or deviations in participant enrollment. Summarizes the data, presents it to the team and provides strategies to resolve deviations.
- Record keeping and oversight. Maintains accurate and timely records of field activities. These include: i) data entry into online systems including datasets, ii) documentation of protocol deviations and its resolutions, iii) documentation of reports that track enrollment of new participants and their follow-up visits, iv) updated training records of the research team, and v) other documents related to the research activities.
- Monitor field inventories and supply needs. Communicate with the field team to monitor their inventory to ensure sufficient equipment and supplies are available for the research activities.
- Continuous communication with the field team. Communicates daily with the field team to record progress, track attendance, answer questions or resolve problems. Reports challenges and progress to the supervisor.
- Compliance with UT policies and regulations. Complies with all governmental and University policies, rules, regulation and codes.
- Participation in training programs. May participate in continuing education programs, workshops and seminars, and encourage participation from the field team.
- Other tasks. Performs other duties as assigned, that may include participant recruiting and screening in Texas.
Preferred Certification/Skills:
- Bilingual; Ability to communicate in Spanish
- Eager to learn and open to new ideas. An interest in understanding the basics of the disease conditions that we work with (tuberculosis, diabetes, aging). Basic reading material will be provided.
- Self-disciplined, organized and reliable in quality of work and schedule.
- General knowledge of data entry and tracking. Computer skills including intermediate level of Microsoft Excel. We use other platforms (SAS, RedCAP) to track data quality and progress, but training will be provided.
- People skills to communicate and interact with field teams
Minimum Education:
- Bachelor’s degree or relevant experience in lieu of education.
Minimum Experience:
- One year of related experience
May substitute required experience with equivalent years of education beyond the minimum education requirement.
Physical Requirements:
Exerts up to 20 pounds of force occasionally and/or 10 pounds frequently and/or up to 10 pounds constantly to move objects.
This position may include work involving potentially hazardous chemical, biological or radioactive agents.
Security Sensitive:
This job class may contain positions that are security sensitive and thereby subject to the provisions of Texas Education Code § 51.215
Residency Requirement:
Employees must permanently reside and work in the State of Texas.
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