Successful recruitment methods in the community for a two-site clinical trial.
Effective screening and recruitment are essential to the success of randomized clinical trials. This report is to describe key screening and recruitment strategies in a two site randomized clinical trial (RCT) conducted in community settings with a vulnerable chronically ill population and to suggest valuable approaches when planning trials. Differences between sites in a complex study with two considerably different environments (academic versus home care) and their participant pools presented challenges which required different screening and recruitment methods. A high level of communication between sites, creative problem solving and the ability to be flexible when problems were encountered were needed for successful screening and recruitment.
University of Rochester, School of Nursing, Rochester, NY 14642. Electronic address: eileen_fairbanks@urmc.rochester.edu.
Eileen
E
Fairbanks
Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Center for Home Care Policy and Research, New York, NY 10001.
Shivani
S
Shah
University of Rochester, School of Nursing, Rochester, NY 14642.
Mary H
MH
Wilde
Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Center for Home Care Policy and Research, New York, NY 10001.
Margaret V
MV
McDonald
University of Rochester, School of Nursing, Rochester, NY 14642.
Judith
J
Brasch
University of Rochester, School of Nursing, Rochester, NY 14642.
James M
JM
McMahon
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D018579:Patient Selection
Clinical nursing research; Methods; Patient selection; Urinary catheterization