Rachel O’Brien and Polly Black discuss the results of a small study comparing perceived and actual times taken to recruit patients in an emergency department

Conducting research in emergency departments is relatively new, and there are a number of ethical and practical challenges to recruiting patients in these settings. In 2008, the Emergency Medicine Research Group Edinburgh (EMERGE) was set up at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh emergency department to support researchers and encourage the growth of research in emergency medicine. As part of a review of their working methods, the group’s clinical nurse researchers undertook a small study to identify participant recruitment times. The results showed a significant difference between perceived and actual recruitment times, which has implications for planning staff numbers and budgets. This article describes the evaluation process and methods of data collection, and discusses the results.