Rounding with the Stars (332) Sensitive and Effective Recruiting in Palliative Care Research

Abstract

To improve care of dying patients and their families, interventions and organization of care environments must be informed by patient and family preferences. However, one of the main impediments to such research is difficulty recruiting and retaining representative samples of patients with advanced life-limiting illness. This interactive forum will focus on challenges and strategies for participant recruitment for palliative care research, external validity and generalizability of results among differing study populations, and effective reporting to improve result applicability. The panelists will use case-based examples to describe these challenges of recruiting research participants in the vulnerable situations faced by people with advanced life limiting illness (eg, elderly, changing cognitive capacity, distress, multiple competing demands). Additionally, they will illustrate successful strategies for negotiating with gatekeepers, minimizing burden on potential participants, and articulating the reporting parameters required to enable consumers to estimate the applicability of the findings to their own population. The panelists will also focus on solutions to address the important balance between clinical and research priorities, including the role of proxies, study designs, and simultaneous attention to patient needs and clinical care. An emphasis on interactive discussion will allow attendees to share their own successful strategies and brainstorm new solutions. Structure and Processes of Care