Recruiting children, young people, and parents/carers into ambulance service research

  

Background

To improve ambulance service care for children and young people (CYP), it is essential that CYP and parents/carers have the opportunity to participate in research studies. The recruitment strategy is therefore key – this may be active (clinician led and/or postal invitation) or passive (online/poster/media advertising). In an ongoing study exploring pain management, we opted for online recruitment techniques and clinician-led leaflet handout, to avoid the complications of postal invitation. We describe and reflect on this strategy.

Methods

Four age-appropriate A5 sized study information leaflets were created with input from a young persons and a parent/carer advisory group. The “Parent/Carer” and “Young People [16-17 years]” leaflets contained contact details, whilst the “Older Children” and “Younger Children [4+ years]” leaflets contained engagement activities. 18,000 leaflets were localised, printed, and distributed to vehicles and staff with the support of logistics and vehicle preparation teams across three English NHS ambulance Trusts from September 2024 to February 2025. Leaflets were given at the end of the phase of care, with clinical care remaining unaltered. We aimed to recruit twenty-one parents/carers and twenty-one CYP aged 4-17 years.

Results

Ten parents/carers and one young person have expressed an interest from the leaflet (n=4) and online (n=7) recruitment techniques, with consent gained and data collected from two parents and one child. Recruitment is ongoing to Summer 2025.

Conclusion

Recruitment is successful, but slow. Challenges include delays to leaflet rollout and site setup, increased organisational pressures, and limited staff awareness of leaflets. Staff engagement is key to leaflet handout and multiple strategies should be adopted to maximise engagement.