GP reaches families for research through membership

GP reaches families for research through Professional Membership

I am conducting a research project which requires the recruitment of parents of children aged 3-5 years.

I set about pinning up posters in the communities I had decided to target, trying hard to think of all the places I would have taken my children to when they were that age. This required many phone calls asking permission from council and government services, private and public kindergartens and even supermarkets. Slowly but surely people started to call in to register their interest. The operative word is 'slowly'.

After a conversation with my co-researcher I got to thinking about how I could just talk to a group of parents to overcome the inevitable barriers that noticboards introduce.

I recalled Playgroup Victoria membership from my own experiences as a parent and explored the website for local playgroups. The application for Professional Membership really captured my interest and I rang to discuss options to access groups of parents. Within three days, Playgroup Victoria had sent out emails speicifically targeting the playgroups in the areas I had selected and the numbers of participants soared! (Playgroup Victoria) has been instrumental in the success of this phase of my research project!

It doesn't end there. I re-contacted Playgroup Victoria when I was trying to contact recent migrant groups and was put onto a playgroup coordinator who worked specifically with such families. The result was again a very helpful list of potential participants which were specific to the requirements of the study.

It is extremely rare in the field of research to NOT have a problem with recruitment but I can honestly say that since that initial phone call to Playgroup Victoria it has been straightforward. So much so that I am considering writing the experience up for submission to a medical journal.

Dr Karyn Alexander
General Practitioner and PhD student
Department of General Practice
School of Primary Health Care
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Monash University
Notting Hill
Victoria
(22 June 2011)