Research
In New Role, Lowry to Support Nursing Research
Last March, Elinar Lowry, RN, BA, MS, PhD, was appointed as a research associate in the Department of Medicine's Section of Cardiology, giving her the authority to serve as a primary investigator in clinical research trials. The position has both practical and symbolic meaning for Lowry and all nurses at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
In her new role, Lowry will be available to serve as principal investigator on nursing research projects, which she said is important for autonomy, in bringing credibility to the nursing profession and in bringing the rigor of nursing scholarship to research at the Medical Center.
"Without a nurse serving in the role of principal investigator, nurses are dependent on other faculty to facilitate their research efforts," Lowry said. "In this role, I am able to give nurses from throughout the Medical Center access to a principal investigator from the same discipline as themselves."
As a principal investigator, Lowry will support, scrutinize and evaluate research efforts by nurses at the Medical Center, taking primary responsibility for any research that goes before the Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Lowry has been a nurse manager for the Center for Heart Failure Management at the Medical Center since 2005 and served as a nurse case manager for the Cardiac Care Center before that. In 2008, she earned her PhD, making her eligible for her current appointment.
In addition to holding a PhD, nurses seeking appointments as research associates must go through a rigorous screening process and have the support of their section chief and the chief nursing officer.
