title: The effectiveness of a student volunteer program for research in a pediatric Emergency Department.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Emergency Department (ED) student-based research assistant programs have been shown to be effective in enrolling patients when the students receive university course credit or pay. However, the impact on research outcomes when university students act as volunteers in this role is relatively unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The main objective of this study was to determine how often potentially eligible children were accurately identified by volunteer research assistants for enrollment into prospective research in the ED. We also examined the frequency of successful enrollments and the accuracy of data capture.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a prospective cross-sectional study of university student volunteer research assistant performance in a tertiary care pediatric ED between March 2011 and July 2013. The participant's primary role was to screen and facilitate enrollment of ED patients into clinical research. For each volunteer, we recorded demographics, number of screenings, enrollments, and data capture accuracy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over five 6-month sessions, 151 student volunteers participated. Of these, 77.3% were female, 58.8% were undergraduate students, and 61.1% were interested in medical school. Student volunteers accurately screened 11,362/13,067 (87.0%) children, and they accurately identified 4407/4984 (88.4%) potentially eligible children for study enrollment. Of the 3805 eligible for enrollment exclusively by the students, 3228 (84.8%) families/children consented and completed all study procedures. Furthermore, students correctly entered 11,660/12,567 (92.8%) data points.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Utilizing university student volunteers to facilitate research enrollment in the ED is effective and allows for the capture of a high percentage of potentially eligible patients into prospective clinical research studies.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Patrick E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Steadman
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crudden
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Taline
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Naranian
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: John Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Oliveria
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boutis
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection / Q000592:standards; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D018579:Patient Selection; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013334:Students; D014838:Volunteers; D000078329:Workforce
keywords: data collection; education; emergency care; funding; hospital volunteers; research; volunteer