ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: This paper explores the impact of recruiting patients to a randomised controlled trial (RCT) at recruiting centres. This large multicentre RCT examining the efficacy of chewing gum compared to ibuprofen in the relief of orthodontic pain was carried out across nine recruiting centres. METHOD: The work diaries of clinicians and supporting staff at recruiting centres were analysed over a four-month period from September to December 2011. This quantified the amount of clinical and non-clinical time spent on research duties. RESULTS: Over this time period 98 patients were recruited across seven trial sites. On average, patient recruitment had a direct clinical impact of 19 minutes per patient recruited. The time commitment on trial administration outside the clinical sessions was much higher, averaging at 110 minutes per patient recruited, giving the overall time spent on the trial 129 minutes per patient. CONCLUSIONS: This information will be valuable to lead researchers when calculating the full economic cost of a proposed clinical trial and therefore when applying for grant funding. It may also be valuable to clinicians and their managers when considering becoming a principle investigator (PI) in a RCT. Although the impact on clinical time was 19 minutes per patient recruited, there is a considerably higher (almost six times greater) time commitment in administration around the recruitment of patients.
Subject(s)
Patient Selection , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic/economics , Workload/statistics & numerical data , Cost-Benefit Analysis , England , Geography, Medical , Humans , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic/methods , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic/statistics & numerical data , Research Design , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
1. Perioperative nurses must bridge the information gap and eliminate public misconceptions about surgery and OR nursing. Fear of the unknown realm of surgery and televised inaccuracies about surgical procedures magnify the lack of awareness of health care consumers about surgery and the holistic nursing care perioperative nurses provide for their patients. 2. There is a national need for more aggressive general promotion of health care awareness and education. This need can be successfully facilitated at the grassroots level with minimal efforts from members of our surgical departments. 3. One effective way to solve this problem is to invite health care consumers into our facilities.
