Table 2 Summary of challenges associated with recruitment in co-design research
From: Recruitment of caregivers into health services research: lessons from a user-centred design study
Research Phase | Challenges | Actions | Costs |
|---|---|---|---|
Grant writing | - Limited experience with co-design research - Limited knowledge of recruitment strategies - Limited anticipation of time, human resources, and costs associated with recruitment | Engaging one family caregiver on the research team at the time of grant writing - Self-training the co-design research within limited time | - Stress and time pressure especially close to the grant submission time |
Planning for data collection | - Limited familiarity with family caregiver’s context and realities - Non-feasibility of research methods in the original grant proposal | (Re) co-designing methods with trusted community caregivers organizations | - Traveling costs to visit community partners - Time to build trust with community partners |
Data collection | - Ensuring shared understanding and building trust - Accommodating family caregivers’ preferences for time and locations - Prolonged data collection process longer than anticipated | - Frequent email communications with interested family caregivers prior to FGs - Seeking extension from funder | - Time - Long distance travels - Working with limited financial and human resources |
Recruitment Strategies | |||
 Partnering with caregiver organizations | - Slow and lengthy process due to missing resources, mutual misunderstanding, and absent trust - Misalignment of values, roles and expectations | - Constant communications with to build trust and to (re)co-design the research methodology | - Human, time, and financial resources |
 Social and print media | - High cost compared to least effectiveness - Receiving many irrelevant email inquiries | - Designing professional social and print media | - High financial cost - Time |
 Flyers in geriatrics clinics | Clinic staff time constraints, bureaucratic rules and procedures, and potential of perceived competing interests | - Designing professional yet lay-public friendly flyers | - Time and financial resources associated with designing professional flyers |
 Traditional snowball sampling | -Least effective in recruiting - Relying on word-of-mouth referrals | - Seeking recruited family caregivers to engage other family caregivers | - Time |