Investigation and analysis of the status of clinical research coordinators

Abstract

Objective： To investigate the current status of clinical research coordinators（CRCs） in Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center，so as to optimize the current management mode and improve the quality of drug clinical trials.Methods： A survey was made among 104 CRCs in the hospital by using a self-made questionnaire，which included professional background，problems facing CRCs and their opinions or suggestions concerning the current management mode.Finally，the study made a descriptive statistical analysis of the obtained results.Results and Conclusion： Most of the CRCs in the hospital had an educational background of above undergraduate course in related medical science，over 80% of them had service years of less than 3 years，and less than 50% of them used to undertake clinical trials independently before they took up their posts in the hospital.The majority of the CRCs had a love for their profession and a sense of accomplishment，but only 20% of them had a sense of home-coming and approval.The feelings of heavy workload and dissatisfaction with salary widely existed among CRCs.Poor cooperation between subjects and pharmacy intravenous admixture service（PIVAS） and CRCs occasionally occurred in work.CRCs put forward a series of suggestions on the current CRCs management mode in the hospital.Such measures as setting up CRCs access threshold，raising salary，enriching training contents，reforming the work system of PIVAS，enhancing the sense of responsibility of clinical researchers，and holding regular informal discussions should be taken to intensify the construction of the CRCs team both professionally and from the aspect of team stability in the long run.