Good Financial Practice and Clinical Research Coordinator Responsibilities.

OBJECTIVES: To describe clinical research billing pitfalls and good financial practices the research nurse coordinator can implement to decrease billing errors in clinical practice. DATA SOURCES: Government websites, published articles, and the author's expertise in national/international research studies. CONCLUSION: Clinical research billing is a risky business. It involves many steps in the process and requires good communication among all key stakeholders. The clinical research coordinator is the key team player to facilitate good financial practices for research billing. Creating and applying standards, cross-functional transparent communication, and effective processes across the organization can help to increase billing compliance and decreases billing risk to the organization. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: The research billing process is a critical component of clinical research. However, billing in the process of generating evidence to inform clinical practice is not included in the core competencies in nursing curriculum. As such, in the real world many nurses grapple with taking on the new role of being a clinical research coordinator. Developing knowledge and understanding about the potential billing pitfalls and good financial practices can support clinical research nurses to decrease billing errors and exposure to risk.