Clinical research nurses, perspectives on recruitment challenges and lessons learnt from a large multi-site observational study.

Abstract

Recruitment of large numbers of study participants within a designated time frame for multi-site clinical research studies is a significant challenge faced by researchers. If a study does not manage to recruit targeted number of participants, it could have a significant impact on the statistical significance of the research. This paper highlights the challenges of recruitment for a large multi-site UK-based tuberculosis observational study 'PREDICT'. It uses a case-study analysis from the research nurses, perspective, and descriptive information retrieved from non-recruitment log forms to understand reasons for potential recruits not participating. Some of the main challenges to recruitment included patients not attending their clinic appointments, time required to obtain site-specific permissions and courier timings for blood sample collection. This paper also outlines key reasons for potential recruits who did not participate. Some of the common barriers to participation for non-recruited participants were work and family commitments, additional blood tests and language barriers. Successful strategies which were implemented to overcome some of the challenges during the study are presented. This paper, therefore, aims to present the challenges faced, lessons learnt and successful strategies implemented to inform the planning of similar longitudinal studies of this scale in future.