Blog Week 8: Exploring Online Resources Part 2

This week’s blog post will discuss the online research I am engaging in. In specific, one study stuck out to me and related closely to my research.

The study is titled “Patient perceptions of participation in emergency medicine research projects.” This study conducts a cross-sectional ED patient survey with questions about the importance of research, research involvement, and consent. With 315 surveyed patients, they achieved a solid sample size. Their results were 98.1% “believed ED research was important”, 68.4% “would welcome [research] involvement”, but only 8.4% “felt pressured to do so” ((Tonnerre et al. 2020) These results are key to revealing why low patient participation exists. Most patients think ED research is important and would welcome involvement, but very few patients feel pressured to participate. This presents a huge problem for the researchers because we need to gain skills in convincing patients to participate or have incentives for being in the research study.

While researching at the Maimonides Emergency Department, I have seen this problem in action. Sometimes I spend extra time trying to convince a potential participant. In these cases, I emphasize the importance of research and speak very kindly. I’ve realized kindness can be a key factor in swaying over the potential participant. In the Emergency Department environment, individuals can be very stressed and want to get out as soon as possible. So when I arrive and speak kindly to the patient, they calm down and are more likely to agree to research in a less agitated state. On the other hand, incentives are another effective way to get patients to agree to research. Incentives are usually a $25 or $50 Amazon gift card. Hearing money immediately alters the patients’ views and feeds their inclination to join the study. Unfortunately, many studies don’t offer incentives, so we can’t rely on incentives.

In conclusion, it is clear patients understand the importance of research but don’t feel pressured to join. Therefore, the ability of a researcher to convince a patient to participate is vital to the study.

Tonnerre, Erik J, et al. “Patient Perceptions of Participation in Emergency Medicine Research Projects.” Emergency Medicine Australasia, vol. 32, no. 4, 10 Feb. 2020, pp. 570–572, https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13455. Accessed 26 May 2024.