This 1-day online course will be held live with a mix of interactive lectures and group discussions.

By the end of the course participants should:

1. be aware of common logistical and organisational issues that can impede recruitment;
2. understand the purpose of RCT screening logs and their value in monitoring recruitment and identifying difficulties;
3. understand the ways in which equipoise issues can undermine RCT recruitment and be aware of strategies for overcoming these difficulties;
4. appreciate the importance of understanding potential participants' (e.g. patients') views for/against trial treatments and how strategies can be used to engage with them to optimise informed decision making; and
5. be aware of how language and terminology can influence potential trial participants’ interpretations of trial treatments and processes.

This course is suitable for health professionals, trial co-ordinators and researchers who have an interest or active role in the design and delivery of RCTs. It will be of particular value to those who organise and/or discuss trial recruitment with potential participants - especially trials in secondary care hospital settings that are deemed difficult to recruit to.

The course content has been informed by two decades of research into optimising RCT recruitment, conducted by the University of Bristol's QuinteT research group. The QuinteT group have worked on over seventy challenging RCTs, most of which have compared very different types of treatment or 'non-treatment' groups in secondary care NHS settings.

The day long course will cover the following areas, using examples from real RCTs:

1. common organisational and logistic difficulties that can impede recruitment;
2. use of screening logs to monitor recruitment, identify issues, and prioritise solutions;
3. an overview of the concepts of individual and community equipoise, and their implications for recruitment;
4. strategies for engaging with patient preferences for or against trial treatments; and
5. the implications of language and terminology on recruitment when discussing RCTs with potential participants.

Course leads and tutors are members of the University of Bristol's QuinteT research group and the Bristol Trials Centre. The QuinteT team have specialist knowledge and experience of understanding and addressing recruitment obstacles in RCTs, following two decades of research in this area.

To make sure the course is suitable for you and you will benefit from attending, please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full here.

For help and support with booking a course refer to our booking information page, FAQs or feel free to contact us directly. For available payment options please see: How to pay your short course fees.

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 3 months after the course. 

University of Bristol staff and postgraduate students who do not wish to attend the full course may instead register for access to the 'Materials & Recordings' version of this course: Further information and bookings.

100% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from 2024.

Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:

"I thought all the talks were well presented and the instructors were very clear with their explanations and helpful with answering their questions." - Course feedback, June 2024

"Approachable and knowledgeable facilitators, felt comfortable asking questions, useful practical." - Course feedback, June 2024

"All really interesting. Discussions about equipoise were great and learning about patient preferences and how to usefully unpick these will be really useful." - Course feedback, June 2024

"Very informative, good level of interaction/breakout rooms, friendly team running this course." - Course feedback, June 2024

"The course was fantastic - comprehensive, detailed, and taught by the experts (leaders) in the field. Very enthusiastically taught with opportunities to reflect on the questions and problems raised by attenders. Lots of opportunity for discussion and reflection by way of interactive polls and questions. The course provided rich knowledge and interesting insights throughout, based on extensive empirical foundations." - Course feedback, June 2024

"The tutors were great! I liked the informal approach of being able to chip in and ask questions." - Course feedback, June 2024

"The course content was easy to access, presenters were clear and easy to understand." - Course feedback, June 2024

"The course was timed very well and covered just the right amount of content within the day." - Course feedback, June 2024

"I enjoyed the structure of the day and the variety of topics." - Course feedback, June 2024