Recruitment in Qualitative Public Health Research: Lessons Learned During Dissertation Sample Recruitment

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe the recruitment challenges faced by eight public health graduate students when conducting qualitative dissertation research. The authors summarize their dissertation studies, describe recruitment challenges, and provide strategies and recommendations used to address challenges. The authors identified twelve recruitment issues which they grouped into three major categories: (a) obtaining consent; (b) working with gatekeepers; and (c) accessing participants. The authors propose three recommendations to consider in participant recruitment, which are: (a) collaborate with gatekeepers; (b) use additional recruitment tools; and (c) understand your target population. The compilation of experiences from multiple graduate students from a diverse selection of topics provides valuable insight and resources when planning a qualitative research study in the field of public health.

Recruitment Strategies to Optimize Participation by Diverse Populations

“…In comparison to the findings of a quantitative study, Ejiogu and colleagues (2010) employed similar measures that led to the successful recruitment of a diverse sample of racial and ethnic minority participants. When planning a research study, understanding the target population is essential (Namageyo-Funa et al, 2014). Researchers must pay careful attention to all aspects of the research study, including study protocol development, analysis, and dissemination, to enhance the recruitment of underrepresented research participants (Sakind, 2010).…”

“…Factors such as increased hours, strenuous work environments, and quarantine stress could have made participation in an interview protocol less palatable for nurses. Third, it is important to construct a research team of diverse researchers with connections to nurses that use peer-to-peer recruitment coupled with considering factors such as age, education level, gender, sensitive nature of research topics, and cultural background (Broyles, Rodriguez, Price, Bayliss, & Sevick, 2011; Coyne et al, 2016; Namageyo-Funa et al, 2014; Webb, Khubchandani, Striley, & Cottler, 2019), which can be advantageous in reaching diverse nurses. Fourth, it is important that researchers using multimodal recruitment strategies should obtain data from successfully enrolled participants to determine the effectiveness of each recruitment strategy.…”

Introduksjon

“…Tid er en verdifull valuta for ansatte og ledere i kommunale tjenester. Selv om nøkkelpersonene er villige til å gi tilgang til potensielle deltakere, kan tidsforpliktelsen til forskning variere basert på arbeidsmengde eller opplevd fordel for tjenestemottakerne (Namageyo-Funa et al, 2014). Dette er kjente utfordringer i rekrutteringssammenheng, noe det var planlagt for ved å tilby økonomisk refusjon for anvendt tid til slike oppgaver.…”

Engaging homeless individuals in discussion about their food experiences to optimise wellbeing: A pilot study

“…Convenience and purposive sampling were adopted, using posters and a gatekeeper (volunteer support worker) (Namageyo-Funa et al, 2014), to assist with selecting participants to engage with the study. Exclusion criteria were those 'visibly unable to communicate'.…”