A qualitative study of factors impacting upon the recruitment of participants to research studies in wound care – The community nurses' perspective

• Factors beyond eligibility criteria influence recruitment to wound trials.
• These additional factors effect recruitment but are not captured in screening logs.
• These additional factors may therefore also affect the generalisability of results.

ObjectiveThe focus of this study was to identify the factors that impact upon the recruitment of participants to research studies in wound care from the community nurses' perspective.MethodA qualitative approach utilising classic grounded theory methodology was used. Semi structured interviews were used to generate data and data analysis was facilitated by using QSR International's NVivo10 qualitative data analysis software (2012).ResultsEight participants consisting of community registered nursing staff of differing levels of seniority took part in the study. Four main themes emerged from the data:
• knowing about the impact of research studies,
• knowing about the patient,
• knowing about the research team and,
• knowing about the study.ConclusionsThere are a number of factors in addition to the eligibility criteria that influence community nurses when identifying potential participants for wound care trials. These factors limit the recruitment pool so may affect the transferability and generalisability of research findings to the intended population. The design of future recruitment strategies and the planning of study initiation training should take these factors into account.