Recruiting general practitioners for palliative care research in primary care: real-life barriers explained

Abstract

Background The implementation of early palliative care within a primary care setting is a recent academic topic. Recruiting General Practitioners (GPs) to participate in a palliative care study can be challenging. The pro-Spinoza project implemented a Care Pathway for Primary Palliative Care in 5 areas in Belgium. During this project, the feasibility of the recruitment of GPs and palliative care patients was evaluated. Methods The recruitment process was recorded in detail via an electronic logbook combining quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative recordings included the contact types and the number of contacts with eligible GPs and were analysed descriptively. Qualitative recordings included field notes with feedback from the GPs and other stakeholders and were thematically analysed starting from the Grol and Wensing framework for professional behaviour change. Results Of 4065 eligible GPs working in 5 areas under research, 787 GPs (19%) were contacted individually, 398 GPs (9,8%) were contacted face-to-face and most of these 398 GPs showed high interest in the topic. 112 GPs (2,8%) signed the collaboration agreement, but finally only 65 GPs (1,6%) delivered at least a completed baseline-questionnaire. Despite the initial interest in participating, the unpredictable and busy daily workloads of the GPs, as well as inexperience with research protocols, impeded the ability of the GPs to fully engage in the study. This resulted in the high dropout rate. Participating GPs reported that they had underestimated the effort required to effectively participate in the project. Conclusions Recruitment of GPs to palliative care research is challenging. Primary care is a vital service to engage in palliative care research however the practical limitations reduce the ability of the service to effectively engage in the research. More research is needed to determine how GPs might be better supported in research. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02266069 , Registered 16th October 2014, retrospectively registered.

Supportive and palliative care indicators tool (SPICT™): content validity, feasibility and pre-test of the Italian version

“…This confirms the difficulties involved in recruiting GPs for PC-focussed projects. Data from a recent study reported that of 4065 eligible GPs, only 2.8% agreed to participate in a PPC research in Belgium [21]. Tailored training programmes should be implemented to encourage more GPs to take part in this type of research.…”

Implementation of Primary Palliative Care in five Belgian regions: A qualitative study on early identification of palliative care needs by general practitioners

“…The focus groups were sometimes very small (twice only 3 GPs), this possibly limited their data. Elsewhere we published reasons for non-participation for the implementation part of this project [ 28 ].…”

Where do GPs find patients with possible palliative care needs? A cross-sectional descriptive study

“…Recruitment and data collection support strategies are described elsewhere in more detail 14 . Many GPs stated that the online data collection was difficult to handle.…”

“…GPs who were male, single-handed and/or in their late career phase, seemed less involved in primary palliative care research activities than other GP profiles, possibly because they lacked support with data collection 14 . These preliminary findings could refine recruitment and participant monitoring strategies in primary palliative care research.…”