Welcome to the Big Baby Forum, a place for everyone to discuss and share their experiences whilst working on the Big Baby Trial.
We hope this is a helpful area for Midwives working on the trial around the country to discuss how things are ran at different sites and allow you to share any hints/tips you have or ask any questions.
Please feel free to start new topics and and reply to current topics.
I thought this would be a good topic for everyone to share how they recruit participants at their hospitals and provide any helpful hints/tips that you think might help other sites when it comes to recruitment.
(Please add your name and hospital to the end of your message so everyone knows who you are and where you work).
Thank you,
Ryan.
Hi, I am Mary Edmondson from Luton and Dunstable Hospital. This will be a very useful area to comment in -
Hi I'm Emma from Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
We have done really well with recruitment up until March when we have recruited just 1 participant. My plan is to visit ANC/ANDU/Scan departments on both our hospital sites once a week to talk about Big Baby with the staff and hopefully restore enthusiasm for the study. I am also starting to Tweet regularly about the study too - this is gaining some interest.
I'll let you know how it goes
:-)
Hi All, I'm Amy Mahdi and I am a research midwife from Liverpool Women's Hospital.
We are finding recruitment from the assessment unit and obstetric day unit are the most consistent, and that a daily visit to these areas to keep the study fresh in midwives minds is really helpful. We also have reminder posters in all the staff areas (for staff eyes only). Really interested to hear how everyone else is getting on and swapping hints and tips!
How are you finding the amount of input required to secure each recruit? Do you have a smooth process for ensuring those who are identified early are scanned and seen again within the eligibility window? Are you identifying many people early or are you just waiting to see those who are already 35+ weeks?
Amy, Liverpool
Hi - I'm Jo from Chelsea and Westminster
We find that one of the biggest issues with recruitment is that the consultants aren't keen for the women to be randomised as they personally recommend either IOL or expectant management and the women therefore want to follow their advice. Does anyone else have this issue?
We try to identify women as early as possible as it gives them more time to ask questions etc - this does add a bit of workload as a couple of women we have approached are then not eligible by the time they have their 35-38 week scan.
Another issue was have had is that often women are noticed to be LGA at 34/40 midwife appointment and referred for a scan so often they have scans from 34+0 to 34+6 and require a rescan to be eligible for recruitment. Is this something other sites are finding?
Hi Amy
We are finding that the input for each recruit is about 2-3 hours, this includes the actual recruitment then completing the database, making recruit file, adding to our CTL and edge, outcome data collection and adding the same to the database. When we first started we were screening women earlier than 35 weeks but we have not gained any recruits by doing this. Most of our recruits have either been referred for a scan by CMW for suspected SGA and then found to be the opposite, were having serial scans for being a smoker or were having serial scans for previous LGA.
Hi Jo
We have not found this problem with our Consultants or Registrars, could you PI perhaps speak to them? In Leeds we don't scan women who are suspected LGA on palpation unless it is suspected poly or a very sudden spike in growth so this has not been a problem for us. We rely on referrals from ANC/ANDU mainly and up to press they have been very good at getting in touch.
I had a good response from teams yesterday when I showed my face in the clinical areas - I am going to do this at least once a week.
My tweets do keep getting likes and re-tweets so that is also worth a go I think
:-)
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