Setting Up So the Visit Can Go Right

Part of Research Assistant (ASSIST) Training: Preparing Visits, Rooms and Supplies.

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

Most visit problems start before the participant arrives

The tube that was out of stock. The form that was the old version. The room that was double booked. The machine nobody had calibrated. Almost all of it is preventable the day before.

Preparation is the part of this job with the highest ratio of effort saved to effort spent.

A visit checklist

Work from the protocol's schedule for that visit, not from memory of the last one. Different visits need different things.

Check the forms are the current version. Check the supplies you need are in date. Check any equipment is working and has been calibrated. Check the room is booked and private enough for a consent discussion if one is happening.

Put the participant's number on what needs it, at the time it is used, not in advance.

Expiry dates

Sample tubes, reagents and kits expire. An expired tube can affect the result, and a sample taken into one may have to be discarded — which means asking the participant to come back.

Check dates when you set up, and pull anything close to expiry so it is not reached for in a hurry.

Say when you cannot

If something is missing and cannot be obtained in time, say so before the visit rather than during it. There may be an option — reschedule inside the window, borrow from another site, adjust the order of the visit — but only if someone knows early.

Discovering it with the participant in the chair removes every option except the bad ones.