Nurse Investigators

Requirements for Submission of Research

  1. You need to be an employee of Covenant Health Care.
  2. Your project needs to be reviewed and approved by your University IRB prior to submission to Covenant IRB.
  3. You must have a Faculty Advisor or Primary Investigator associated with your study.
  4. You must notify and gain permission from the unit manager of any area that may be involved and have them complete the Research Impact Statement Form (if applicable).
  5. Your project need to be reviewed and approved by the Covenant Nursing Research Committee. You must contact Robin Begick at RJBegick@chs-mi.com or (989) 583-4893, Chair of Nursing Research Committee) prior to your submission to the Covenant IRB. Once the Nursing Research Committee reviews and approves your study, then you may submit along with your other materials, on IRBNet.

Submission Process

Covenant Medical Center IRB utilizes IRBNet as a gateway for submission of protocols and for communication between the IRB office and the research team. There are a couple of additional tasks that will need to be completed in order for your submission to be reviewed by this IRB.

  1. If you have used the IRBNet system for other projects at other sites (university, another hospital) you DO NOT need to register. You just need to add Covenant Medical Center as an affiliation since you already have an established account.
  2. Register on IRBNet (our web based submission tool).
  3. Complete the Full Board and Expedited Application or, if indicated by the Exempt Determination Tool, the Exempt Application. They can also be found on the main web page or under the forms and templates tab in IRBNet. Your University application is not acceptable.
  4. Submit a new protocol.
  5. Upload the new application, University IRB approval letter, the Covenant Nursing Research Committee approval letter, and your resume or CV to your new study package. Once all your documents are added, make sure your package is signed and submitted.
  6. Once received, the IRB office will pre-review your submission. If it's complete, it will be forwarded to the IRB Chair or placed on the next full board agenda (based on appropriate level of review).

Reference Documents

The following items are available under the “Forms and Templates” tab in IRBNet (READ ME DOCUMENTS) to assist you with your IRB submission process and on the main page of the web site.