Hospital’s patient is a very delicate target to recruit.
Had a tough target recruit sometime ago. Having patients for respondents has never been easy. We targeted post surgery patients who was just discharged from the hospital. This project was run in two different markets, Jakarta and Yogyakarta at the same time. Not only that, the pandemic was already started at that time. We had to deal with the lock down government policy, which made it even more difficult for recruitment. Can you imagine that we had to recruit hospital patients, but on the other hand, hospital was one of the main places we avoided it in those days… well actually until now.
It was amazing to see how the family can be so protective of their sick family members. It’s always nice to know that you are loved. We need to have the family’s approval to approach the patient and they never left the patient unattended at all time. Family and friends played very important roles in this case, knowing that it was impossible for the respondents to complete their task, because in this project, they needed to complete a 7days diary. The diary was about how they took care of the surgery wounds, and almost all of respondents can’t even do it on their own due to their weak and fragile condition. Respondents needed help to key in their online task as well.
Having scars on your body is always not a pretty sight to look at, especially for women. No wonder, we had some respondents dropped out. It was very important to have enough backups. We didn’t realize how traumatic it was for respondents before we saw all the wounds. I was personally touched by this project, I think this is the toughest project not only because of the respondents criteria, but also because of the thought and the feeling were so intense. We became close not only to the respondents, but to the family as well.
Not gonna lie that there are still people who tried to cheat. That is why QC is always needed. Never let your guard down. Shout out to our PM who worked so hard and long hours to complete this project.
