Recruiting clinical personnel as research participants: a framework for assessing feasibility

Abstract

Increasing numbers of research studies test interventions for clinicians in addition to or instead of interventions for patients. Although previous studies have enumerated barriers to patient enrolment in clinical trials, corresponding barriers have not been identified for enrolling clinicians as subjects. We propose a framework of metrics for evidence-based estimation of time and resources required for recruiting clinicians as research participants, and present an example from a federally funded study. Our framework proposes metrics for tracking five steps in the recruitment process: gaining entry into facilities, obtaining accurate eligibility and contact information, reaching busy clinicians, assessing willingness to participate, and scheduling participants for data collection. We analyzed recruitment records from a qualitative study exploring performance feedback at US Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs); five recruiters sought to reach two clinicians at 16 facilities for a one-hour interview. Objective metrics were calculable for all five steps; metric values varied considerably across facilities. Obtaining accurate contact information slowed down recruiting the most. We conclude that successfully recruiting even small numbers of employees requires considerable resourcefulness and more calendar time than anticipated. Our proposed framework provides an empirical basis for estimating research-recruitment timelines, planning subject-recruitment strategies, and assessing the research accessibility of clinical sites.

Strategies to successfully recruit and engage clinical nurses as participants in qualitative clinical research

“…While all sites may be part of a larger health care organisation, the process of gaining entry, as well as ethics approval, may be site specific. Availability and access to key personnel, and priorities may vary, and this may potentially generate delays in ethics approval and, therefore, needs to be considered in the time frame for the study (Broyles, Rodriguez, Price, Bayliss, & Sevick, 2011;Coyne & Dean, 2010;Hysong, et al, 2013). The ethics application requires the support of clinicians from ward to manager level.…”

“…In order to provide useful insights into current nursing practices, successful recruitment of nurses in the clinical setting is considered essential (Hysong, Smitham, Knox, Johnson, SoRelle, & Haidet, 2013). For the main study which investigated the family assessment processes of oncology nurses, the recruitment of the nurses into the study was essential (Coyne, Grafton, Reid, & Marshall, 2016).…”

The Impact of Stakeholder Preferences on Service User Adherence to Treatments for Schizophrenia and Metabolic Comorbidities

“…This method was chosen to help develop a picture of the organization’s policy that followed the hierarchy of roles. It is likely to provide a more systematic exploration of the content [26] and provides a better way of gaining entry into the sample pool [27]. …”

Feasibility and acceptability of commonly used screening instruments to identify frailty among community-dwelling older people: a mixed methods study

“…Practice nurses who administered the screening instruments were asked to participate in an individual interview focusing on their impressions of the screening tools with a member of the research team (RA), with the exception of the nurse from the withdrawn site. The overall number of participating nurses was relatively low (n = 5); however, given the pivotal role of clinical staff in the ultimate success of interventions [41], it was considered imperative that their perspectives be canvassed and presented here, even if only for illustrative purposes. There are a range of reasons why providing this information might prove useful to future researchers and clinicians [38], not least of which is to inform the future implementation of these tools in clinical practice.…”