Participant recruitment : tips and tricks

It is documented that response rates and the retention of participants in health-related research can be challenging. While some suggest response rates in qualitative research are not a problem, it is important in reporting qualitative research that recruitment strategies and success are explicitly documented. Recruiting nurses to participate in qualitative interviews presents researchers with a number of issues. Personal attributes such as interest and motivation of the participants and whether the participant is a specialist affect recruitment. Further, environmental and organizational pressures including competing commitments for clinical practice and workload demands also impact interest in research participation. From a research design perspective, the duration of the interview and the length of time between a series of interviews are important to consider. This presentation explores these recruitment issues from our reflections on research studies we have conducted and provides tips and tricks to address them. These insights could assist new researchers in nursing and in other health-related disciplines in planning and implementing their qualitative research.