Escalating the Same Day

Part of Research Assistant (ASSIST) Training: Noticing What Has to Be Told to Someone.

About 1 minutes. Free, in your language, no account needed.

Who to tell, in order

Tell the study coordinator. If they are unavailable and it sounds clinical, tell the research nurse. If it sounds urgent and neither is there, tell any clinician on the team and say it is about a study participant.

Every site has a route for when the usual person is away. Find out what yours is on your first week, not on the day you need it.

Do not leave it in a message and assume

A voicemail or an unread email is not an escalation. If you have not spoken to a person, it has not been handed over.

Say it out loud to someone, and then write down that you did: who you told, when, and what you said. That note takes ten seconds and it is the evidence the handover happened.

What to have ready

The participant number. What was said or seen, in the words used. When it happened and when you heard about it. Whether the participant is still on site.

You do not need conclusions. You need the facts you actually have, and you should be clear about which parts you were told and which you observed.

If you are brushed off

Occasionally a busy person will wave something away. If you still think it matters, say so once more plainly: "I want to make sure this is recorded — she said chest pain."

If it still goes nowhere, tell the coordinator or the investigator directly. That is not going over anyone's head. Participant safety is the one thing where persistence is always appropriate.