Alejandra Ugalde is the Screening Manager at our Miami, FL facility, where she supports volunteer screening and volunteer recruitment for our Phase I clinical trials. In this interview, she shares a day in the life of her role.
What I enjoy most about my role is the people, including working with patients or volunteers, our screening team, and our whole Miami team. I really enjoy the patient care aspect of my nursing education and the ability to apply that here at Quotient Sciences.
- Alejandra Ugalde
What does a screening Manager do at Quotient Sciences?
As a Screening Manager, I oversee all screening activities and volunteer recruitment on a day-to-day basis, providing guidance and support to the screening team. Our main priority is to ensure that all ongoing or new clinical trials are enrolled in full and deadlines are met on time.
What does your typical day look like?
A typical day within the screening department means that we can process around 10 to 30 volunteers a day. We are the first faces that the volunteers get to see when they come to Quotient Sciences - Miami, so we try to make their experience memorable and make sure that any issues or queries get resolved. We are also responsible for reviewing the informed consent for any trial that they’re here to participate in, conducting a thorough medical history and physical exam, and coinciding with the protocol restrictions for these screening procedures (like vital signs, ECG, and specimen collection for laboratory processing.)
How has your career progressed since joining Quotient Sciences?
At Quotient Sciences, we believe in fostering career growth. I have had the opportunity to expand my skills and responsibilities significantly since joining the company. I would say that my interpersonal skills have been sharpened, and my leadership skills have improved. I also didn’t come to Quotient Sciences with managerial experience, but I have been very hands-on and have learned on the go about what it takes to lead a successful team. My team has been so patient and understanding; I’m very thankful for all their support, especially as we’ve navigated a high influx of trials to meet enrolment deadlines and expectations of our sponsors.
What experience did you have before Quotient Sciences?
Prior to working as a Screening Manager, I worked at Quotient Sciences a few years back as a data entry coordinator. My main responsibilities were data entry and cleansing, and resolving any queries arising from the EDC or our eSource system, which we use for volunteer management and operations in Miami. I left this role and enrolled at Florida International University where I completed my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. My nursing background helped me return to Quotient Sciences in my role supporting the various aspects of volunteer screening and recruitment for our Phase I clinical trials.
What learning or qualifications have you gained since being here?
To be a Screening Manager, the qualifications were either having a registered nurse’s license or a Bachelor of Science in nursing with at least two years of clinical research experience. Since I have been with Quotient Sciences, I am grateful that the company supported my continuing education and training, and I have been able to acquire my Advanced Cardiac Life Support Certification (ACLS). Also, I have been able to apply leadership skills like conflict resolution and mentorship to ensure that the team always feels supported, motivated, or guided through any issues we encounter.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
What I enjoy most about my role is the people, including working with patients or volunteers, our screening team, and our whole Miami team. I really enjoy the patient care aspect of my nursing education and the ability to apply that here at Quotient Sciences in a lot of different ways, from conducting a medical history and assisting technicians with vitals and ECG, to doing volunteer check-in with our registration coordinators and assisting our volunteer recruiters.
What aspects do you find most challenging?
The team is comprised of many different roles including research technicians, volunteer recruiters, and front desk coordinators. Not every day is going to be easy, but we all support each other and get through our challenges. One of the more difficult aspects of being a Screening Manager is delivering bad news. That usually means telling a volunteer when they are ineligible for a trial, which can be for several reasons, such as the person may not be healthy enough to participate at this time, or trials may be moved or canceled. I’m responsible for making sure that volunteers are informed when there are changes, to let them know that they may be eligible in the future and that we can stay in touch.
What advice would you give to someone applying for a role in your team?
Be prepared for a fast-paced environment—this really lives up to our manifesto at Quotient Science, “Molecule to cure. Fast.” We all need to be mindful of working efficiently while upholding the utmost quality throughout all of our clinical trials.
What do you like most about working at Quotient Sciences?
There is always an opportunity to learn, whether directly from a colleague or from learning what a department as a whole does and the impact that it has on the company, like project management, clinical, medical, database programming, data sciences—the list goes on. It’s really nice to see that we can all get together and understand each other’s roles, and how each person and function impacts a clinical trial’s success.