Welcome to the Student Portal, below you will find the appropriate compliance steps for Duke Health Site Research, EBP and QI projects in student roles:
Student Processes to Perform your Project at DUHS
1. All students using Duke University Health System as a project/study site must register with Clinical Affiliations, even if you are a DUHS employee. DUHS Student Onboarding

2. Before you begin your project development and implementation within the healthcare system, Submit your request through this link. An expert will contact you to discuss your project proposal and describe all the steps involved along the way. If you need help brainstorming ideas for a project to be performed at DUHS, we have a repository that aligns with our nursing strategic plan.

3. You will also need to take Duke Health CITI biomedical courses to be listed as Key Personnel on the IRB submission. CITI Biomedical and Vulnerable populations training is required before the IRB process. This training is 17 modules long. When creating your CITI account, please use your netID@duke.edu. In order for our team to process your IRB faster and properly perform the required steps, after you complete your CITI training, go to https://iris.duke.edu and log in and log out using your netID@duke.edu. Click Here for CITI instructions.

4. After your consultation, 2 forms will need completion to obtain leadership and Duke Health IRB approvals.
• The DUHS Feasibility Form is a brief synopsis of your project; think of it as an abstract of your project, the big overview. This form serves as a letter of support once leadership has signed their support and approval for you to perform your project on their unit/clinic/facility. Please use the button on the right to download the DUHS Organizational Feasibility Form.
• The Exemption template contains all the detail-oriented information we need to submit for IRB determination. All student projects involve some level of data leaving the health care system for your school to review and thus require IRB determinations of exemption or research approval. There are additional items that we may ask for. Some examples will be provided for you to think about.
• If you are performing a survey, use Duke Qualtrics. We can add your professor as a collaborator, so no data needs to be transmitted via email. We will need a copy of the survey you are proposing to use; if it was a published survey, you would need to obtain permission to use it.
• If you need to collect data from the medical record or develop a data variable log, it should be stored in Duke Box. Again, your professor can be added as a collaborator to prevent data transmission externally.
• Think about all the variables you are going to collect and analyze; only ask to collect PHI that is justified by the literature or previous research. Remember that staff is considered vulnerable subjects, and their names and emails are considered PHI.
• Be aware that no data can be stored on your work, personal laptops/computers, or shared drives. We can ask for a private secured drive, in select cases.
• If you invite staff or patients to participate in your project intervention, you may need to develop a recruitment flyer or email invitation. We will let you know if the project needs verbal or written consent for subject participation.

We will work with you throughout the development of your project. Once it has gained leadership and IRB approvals, we will notify you. We will continue to work with you throughout your project implementation and ask that you present your results to the unit/clinic where you performed your project, as well as the DUHS Nursing Research and EBP Council.

After you have completed your project or have preliminary findings, we will be happy to work with you to write your project for publication and conference presentations.

Some students don’t have ideas for their projects. We work with DUHS Nursing Leadership to develop a list of projects that are a high priority for the health care system, supported by leadership with managers willing to work with you. If you would like more information, please email NursingINQ.