title: Researching participant recruitment times.
abstract: Conducting research in emergency departments is relatively new, and there are a number of ethical and practical challenges to recruiting patients in these settings. In 2008, the Emergency Medicine Research Group Edinburgh (EMERGE) was set up at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh emergency department to support researchers and encourage the growth of research in emergency medicine. As part of a review of their working methods, the group's clinical nurse researchers undertook a small study to identify participant recruitment times. The results showed a significant difference between perceived and actual recruitment times, which has implications for planning staff numbers and budgets. This article describes the evaluation process and methods of data collection, and discusses the results.
authors.affiliation: Emergency department, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, NHS Lothian.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.affiliation: Emergency department, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, NHS Lothian.
authors.forename: Polly
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Black
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D018579:Patient Selection; D012107:Research Design; D012606:Scotland; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: data collection; emergency care; emergency medicine; nurse research; time and motion