what are some of the best things about being a CRA you would say because
everyone wants to be a CRA I I mean I have my thoughts about why but why do
you why do you think people want to be a CRA I would say maybe the travel you get
paid pretty well oh I don't know what else I mean for me the best things about
being a CRA the flexibility you get to make your own schedule somewhat you know
you have to match it with the site schedule but for the most part you make
your own schedule if you schedule it ahead of time there are some instances
where you just have to be gone back-to-back because you may be in like
database lock or something like that but for the most part like I said you get to
make your own schedule the traveling can get tiring it does get like annoying
sometimes but the plus side is you get the points so you get the hotel points
the airline points the car rental points so if your traveler like I am that helps
a lot when you travel for personal trips and then also the benefit of working
from home because we do travel so much we get to work from home when we are we
aren't at home so I think that definitely helps if you are the type of
person that can work for all like like you don't get like sidetracked or
anything like that yeah but yeah and I think I mean I think
everybody gets a little sidetracked at home you know that's inevitable but some
people just can't do it at all so yeah okay so the perks the money
that's why people want to do it what about where was I going with this
what about when are there any like downsides to being a CRA
yeah the traveling the traveling in the different cities depending on how your
schedule is set up but I mean I don't really see a downside
besides that because you know you can easily tire yourself out from all of the
traveling depending on the project uhand i know when i first got started i was
back and forth to the west coast so that was pretty tiring and i just was doing a
lot you know just travel wise so traveling for business is obviously way
different than traveling for pleasure right mm-hmm and and how much our CRA is
actually traveling how much do you actually travel it's different for every
project that I was honest so definitely for the majority of the time I travel
every week each week is different sometimes I have one visit a week
sometimes I have three visits a week so it just depends on the month and the
project that I'm currently in the transition of getting a new project and
I still have one old project so currently my travel is like I just do
the project for my old study and my new study I'm still doing the training so
it's like but generally every week it differs on CRA as well because some CRA
s that I've worked with they like to set their travel up where the first three
weeks at a month they're traveling the last week they're home the whole week so
it's dependent on the CRA and if your company if your manager is fine with you
doing that because some managers are like you need to be out every week some
managers are fine with as long as you meet your required minimum you can set
it up however you want if you want to be home in the last week of the month so I
would say it's just dependent on a CRA okay how do you like to set your zone
I'm trying to move to a point where I can do the traveling for three weeks and
then home for one week Straight But that's traveling every
single day right four days a week yeah but it also depends on when the month
because some months will have like you know two extra days after the fourth
week like a Monday and Tuesday so it depends on that and then it also depends
on your metrics so depending on what company you work for depends on how many
visits you should be doing a month so I have set it up I did that last month and
I did like it I didn't have a problem with it like I
said because I was transitioning between projects it was it was fine I feel like
once I get my new project up and running I'm probably gonna go back to just
traveling every week and normally when I travel every week I'm traveling like
I'll leave either on a Monday and come back come back like Wednesday or leave
on a Tuesday come back Thursday or sometimes I do day trips because I live
in Atlanta so I can do day trips for my mm-hmm yeah I like most of the time I
can get I can get to the site by 9:00 o'clock you know getting up early taking
a 6:30 flight why would you want to do that as opposed to like staying over
some place because honestly when you do it for so long for me I just became
tired of staying at hotels I was just like I don't want to see a hotel I'm
tired of hotels so I started taking day trips and I just was like gone a lot and
I just was like missing my house so I started doing day trips and then my
project you can't do it all the time but my project was getting to a point where
the stuff that I had to review on site it allowed for me to do a day trick
because we were getting towards the end of the project and so so yeah so I can
do day trips now with my project because it's less visits less less that
they have to collect during the visits so it's not as much information for me
to review so the day trips work fine but but you know of course for like my new
study I know that I'm gonna have to stay the night because this is a whole new
study we're starting from the beginning it's a lot to review so I know I know a
day trip is not going to work okay so I'd like to I like to mix them III mean
I don't have a problem with staying overnight but you know I just got to a
point where my project allowed me to do day trips and I was just tired of
staying in hotels so I did the day trip I don't mind getting getting up in the
morning taking that early flight and then coming back that same night I
actually preferred it at the time now as of right now where I am now now I'm back
to doing like overnights I don't mind doing overnights before a period I want
to say about six months I was doing day trips oh dang okay yeah I know I know
people get burnt out being CRA s I know people kind of you know eventually just
get tired of it how do you how do you manage that well I
didn't start doing the day tricks until it was like my third year in yeah they
doing day trips so all before that I was going and staying the night and doing
all that so my day trips didn't start into the third year er eh all right
but yeah so and in mind you it's not for every site it's dependent on the site
but again at the at that point in time when I started doing them and I still do
them now for some sites depending on where they're at because the project has
slowed down so much and because I didn't have to review I don't have a lot of
information to review you know like I can go there and be done with work in
five hours got it so you know that's the type of site that
I'm going to because the project has slowed down tremendously okay so that's
how I can do add a project because I only have five hours to work of work
to do when I get there okay you know yeah that makes sense what was your
question sorry I just want it to like further explain like oh how is she doing
today trip but no I only have about five hours of work independent on this site
that's the higher enrollment site it's five hours over my lower enrollment
sites it's even less time than that okay so yeah the question was how do you
manage like the burnout in the stress and you know they travel all the time
oh for the long term because I'm sure when you first become a CRA its new
exciting it's fun you know like you said the first two years but by year three
you know you're starting to be like okay I'm kind of tired of hotels now so how
do you manage that for me when I first started I was always like yeah I'll
cover this visit I'll do this without do this visit which is fine because you're
a new CRA you know that's like that's normal I would say for new CRA to be
like yeah I'll do this y'all go here I'll go there go I'll do this but I feel
like once you feel like you're getting to a point where you're just always
tired you feel your body burning out definitely say something to your manager
because your manager is it should be the one I say should because it's not always
this way but your manager should be the one to back you up and tell your project
you know like you can't do this visit or you can't do this because you're just
you have to stop like I said when I was first started as a CRA I was going back
and forth to the west coast so you know your manager would in my situation be
like you know she can't go back to the west coast anymore like no she needs to
stay regional she needs to do this so I would say definitely speak with your
manager and then just pay attention to your body because a lot of people will
overlook it and they'll just keep going and keep going and then they'll be burnt
out and then they'll just be quitting because without right well I say pay
attention to your body don't be afraid to tell your study team no because think
about it the senior CRS they have no problem
people know that they won't do it some cigars are super and they're like
supermen and superwomen and they can just go go go go go go but
everybody's not like that so I definitely say don't be afraid to
tell them that you can't do it because you know just because you need to either
I think you need to get your mind back together get your body back together or
you just need the day to work like you know some people actually need that day
at home to work like they don't work well in hotels or you know different
things like that so I just say always tell people like don't be afraid to tell
them that you can't do it don't feel like you know everything's gonna go
wrong if you can't do a visit