Biggest Challenges Faced By a Senior Clinical Trial Coordinator at UCLA Health
Cindy's greatest challenge as a Senior Clinical Trial Coordinator is managing the immense pressure and emotional toll of the role, describing it as navigating "the fear of disappointment" because of the significant impact their work has on patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies. Maintaining humility and compartmentalizing the emotional demands from various stakeholders is equally crucial yet difficult.
Stress Management, Project Management, Communication, Resilience, Overcoming Challenges
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Cindy Tong
Sr. Clinical Trial Coordinator
UCLA Health, Hematology/Oncology
UCLA, 2017
UCLA FEMBA 2026
Biology & Related Sciences
Healthcare, Medical & Wellness
Research and Development (R&D)
Took Out Loans
Video Highlights
1. High-pressure environment and stress management are crucial skills. The role demands juggling multiple tasks with tight deadlines, impacting patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies. Emotional regulation and compartmentalization are key to handling the pressure.
2. Humility is vital. The job requires navigating numerous requests and potential conflicts without taking things personally. Maintaining a clear mindset despite multiple demands is key to success.
3. Strong communication and interpersonal skills are essential. Although technical skills are important, the ability to handle the emotional aspects of the job and maintain effective communication are equally critical. The emotional impact of healthcare and the importance of effective communication are highlighted
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
I do think it's the stress management level, although the skill variety definitely keeps us on our toes. Something we learned in organizational behavior was that it's a huge contributor to intrinsic motivation.
In practice, it is a lot to keep up with. I think the biggest challenge of knowing you have to keep up with so much is the fear of disappointment. The disappointment isn't just about letting somebody down by not getting a project done in time, or the schedule not being done in time.
It's about these people—patients, physicians, pharmaceutical companies—they are really relying on you to do the work that you need to do. Not saying that they're very rigid and deadlines are super harsh; they're also very understanding. But definitely the pressure that comes with knowing how much you impact things.
This is again, the most rewarding aspect: just being able to navigate that and take it day by day, piece by piece, and really regulating your own emotions and keeping track of your work. I think also, in a weird way, what I've seen in many other coordinators in this industry from different hospitals is that humility is the most challenging thing. It is very hard to stay clear-minded when so many people are yelling at you and need things from you.
It's not personal, and that's totally fine. But again, just being able to compartmentalize that and knowing it's not personal, I think that is the most challenging thing. I would love to say it's the work itself, like a certain technical skill or learning to build up communication skills. I think in any job, that is very difficult. But the nature of healthcare really is that the emotions are the most challenging thing.