Asking Is Part of the Work

Part of Research Assistant (ASSIST) Training: When the Instruction Does Not Fit.

About 2 minutes. Free, in your language, no account needed.

The fear of looking inexperienced

New staff delay asking because they do not want to seem like they cannot cope. It is a completely normal feeling and it causes most avoidable errors in this job.

An unasked question becomes a guess. A guess becomes an entry in a record. That entry is difficult to unpick weeks later.

How to ask so you get a usable answer

Be specific. "The protocol says process within thirty minutes — does that start at collection or at receipt in the laboratory?" gets an answer. "I am confused about the samples" gets a conversation.

Say what you have already checked. It shows you tried and tells the person where the gap actually is.

Ask before you act, if there is time. A question in advance costs a minute. A question afterwards costs a correction.

Write the answer down

Answers given in a corridor are forgotten. Note what you were told, by whom, and when. If it is a decision about a participant or a visit, it may belong in the study record, and your coordinator can tell you.

Keep your own notebook of the answers you have needed twice. It becomes the thing you hand the next new person.

When you are unsure whether to escalate

Escalate. The cost of raising something that turned out to be nothing is a short conversation. The cost of not raising something that turned out to matter is much larger, and it lands on the participant rather than on you.

Nobody experienced in this field will think less of you for it. They have all had the visit where they wished they had asked.