Site in focus: Southmead - words of encouragement from the Lead Research Nurse
Together we can achieve it! Boosting Recruitment into UPSTREAM
Kwame Ansu, Senior Research Nurse & Lead Research Nurse for UPSTREAM, believes that even in the absence of surgeons, research staff can still maximise recruitment into UPSTREAM.
Dear UPSTREAM Staff,
It has been amazing working with you for the past six months. I have had invaluable discussions with research nurses and site staff during this period and your enthusiasm and openness, sharing of experience and continued development of new strategies for screening and recruitment, assure me that together we can do it. Thank you for the good works and let us 'keep pushing’.
August and September saw a very low recruitment for obvious reasons but whilst I trust that we can turn things around from now, I thought I should also share the following areas with you to consider so that Together We Can Do It.
Note Screening Workshop (PDF, 2,399kB): For those of you who made it to BAUS last July, I do not need to emphasise how relevant this workshop has proven to be. And for those who have interacted with me following BAUS, I remember you have told me this has been very useful. The different scenarios continue to provide a useful guide for nurses and research staff during screening and I will encourage you to continue to use it. I will also keep up with the workshop.
DO NOT RELY on surgeons to do the screening: Centres that do not rely on surgeons alone to identify patients generally do very well. These centres have devised different ways and areas to maximise screening and recruitment and as surgeons have very limited time to screen notes from all the relevant areas, taking this burden off them has not only helped in recruitment into UPSTREAM, it has also strengthened the bond between the teams and the surgeons.
New areas to consider for screening (courtesy of Oxford - Emily and Heidi): Please keep records of all patients who present with Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) and raised prostate specific antigens (PSAs) who end up going for TRUS biopsy. Emily has forged a good relationship with the secretaries who email her copies of the letters for all such patients whose biopsies come back as negative. Once prostate cancer has been ruled out, the next stage is to deal with their LUTS. Provided they do not meet any of the exclusion criteria, they present a great pool of potential patients for UPSTREAM. Please keep eye on these.
Site visit and support by Lead Nurse: I have set some time aside to support sites through visits and telephone discussion to discuss challenges to recruitment and also to provide practical support to staff that require it. The Note Screening Workshop (PDF, 2,399kB) has been valuable and turned things around for some sites but for those still struggling, I am available to visit and work with you to go through the practical aspects of UPSTREAM. My focus is on how, where and when to screen patients and enable site staff build their confidence and independence to recruit patients into the study without necessarily having to run eligibility through PIs. If you prefer to have your visit sooner, please email me so we can arrange this to happen.
End of recruitment (30th June 2016): UPSTREAM recruitment is set to end at the end of June 2016 (i.e. in 8 months time), thus we do not have much time. Yet there is so much we need to do so please keep pushing for us to have reasons to celebrate our achievement.
Best wishes,
Kwame Ansu