JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Recruitment processes for clinical trials of digital interventions for psychosis are seldom described in detail within the literature. While trial staff have expertise in describing barriers and facilitators to recruitment a specific focus on understanding recruitment from the point of view of trial staff is rare and since trial staff are responsible for meeting recruitment targets, a lack of research on their point of view is a key limitation.

Objective:

The primary aim of this study was to understand recruitment from the point of view of trial staff and discover what they considered to be important.

Methods:

We applied pluralistic ethnographic methods including analysis of trial documents, observation and focus groups explored the recruitment processes of the EMPOWER feasibility trial (ISRCTN: 99559262)

Results:

Recruitment barriers fell into two main themes; service characteristics (lack of time available to mental health staff to support recruitment, staff turnover, patient turnover (within Australia only), management styles of community mental health teams, physical environment) and clinician expectations (filtering effects and resistance to research participation). Trial staff negotiated these barriers through strategies such as emotional labour (trial staff managing feelings and expressions in order to successfully recruit participants) and trying to build relationships with clinical staff working within community mental health teams

Conclusions:

Researchers in clinical trials for digital psychosis interventions face numerous recruitment barriers and do their best to work flexibly negotiate these barriers and meet recruitment targets. The recruitment process appeared to be enhanced by trial staff supporting each other throughout the recruitment stage of the trial. Clinical Trial: ISRCTN: 99559262