Administration
Obtaining support from the hospital administration is vital to making a research program function well. Is there an executive sponsor within the hospital who has an interest in research and who might facilitate financial or structural supports such as office space?

Research Manager
Does your hospital have a research office or research manager who can support the development of your program? Their support can be especially beneficial with hiring dedicated research staff and human resources management.

Investigators
Are there physician(s) in your ICU who are willing to act as site investigators or co-investigators? Ideally, you need 2-3 MDs who are willing to take on this role, which entails screening patients for study enrolment and troubleshooting any problems that may arise with patients enrolled in the study. You can also invite physicians from other departments to be investigators or co-investigators on ICU studies when the study is related to their area of expertise, eg., infectious diseases for COVID studies or cardiology for shock studies.

RN champion
Is there an RN educator who would be willing to champion research studies, help train bedside RNs on study protocols, and serve as a resource in the event of questions or concerns?

RT champion
For ventilation studies, is there an RT educator who would be willing to champion research studies, help train bedside RTs on study protocols, and to serve as a resource in the event of questions or concerns?

Allied-health champion(s)
For allied health related studies (e.g., rehab or nutrition studies), is there an allied health team member who is willing to be trained and assist with study procedures?

Consider what other departments might be impacted and seek support from their leadership (some are study-specific):

• Diagnostic Imaging (for studies involving investigational imaging techniques)
• Laboratory (for studies involving blood sample collection and processing)
• Blood bank (for studies involving blood products)
• Decision Support (for studies involving large-scale data extraction)
• Nursing
• Respiratory Therapy
• Physiotherapy

Research Coordinator
Typical duties include: assisting with initiation, and approval of study protocols; conducting daily study operations according to approved study protocols; daily screening of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU); identifying eligible study participants; obtaining informed consent; carrying outpatient visits; collecting, inputting and analyzing data; monitoring for protocol adherence, and adverse events; educating healthcare staff related to ongoing research; and other duties required to support clinical trials in the ICU. Administrative tasks include completing research ethics board submissions and amendments; documenting research-related information in the study participants' medical records; preparing study updates; participating in site initiation, monitoring, and other study related meetings; maintaining study records in accordance with regulatory requirements; tracking expenditures in budgets and aiding in preparing financial summaries. (Example Clinical RC Job Posting)

Research Nurse or Clinical Research Coordinator
Will conduct non-standard of care study activities delegated by the Principal Investigator (i.e. investigational product administration, collection of study-specific blood samples, study evaluations with investigational equipment etc. )

Research Assistant
Typically works under the supervision of a research coordinator. Duties may include: collecting, recording, processing, and entering data into databases, assisting with screening study participants, assisting in the consent and recruitment of study participants, interviewing study patients and transcribing recorded interviews, and performing literature searches as applicable. Administrative duties may include: scheduling appointments for research studies including research team meetings; general office duties; assisting with research publications, assisting with tracking budgets and expenditures, and assisting with other duties as needed. (Example RA Job Posting)

Research Volunteer
Works under the supervision of a research coordinator or research assistant. Typical duties include data collection and data entry. With appropriate training, volunteers can also help with survey administration, consenting patients, follow-up calls, filing, scanning, and sourcing documents. Research volunteers differ from regular hospital volunteers as they are collecting personal health information from patient medical records. For this reason, they require additional onboarding requirements (see mandatory research training section). You will need to work with your local volunteer program to establish an onboarding process that meets your hospital privacy, IT and volunteer association policies.

Network with community centres that have existing research programs and may know of RCs who are looking to move institutions.

Use your hospital’s HR recruitment website.
A good way to recruit people who want to work at your specific institution.

Connect with non-ICU research programs within your hospital.
Could you potentially “share” a coordinator with another program to reduce costs and ensure the RC has enough work? Are there research staff in other departments who are looking to change positions or diversify their skills?

Recruit from academic centres ICU research programs.
Academic centres may have RCs who would prefer to work in a community hospital due to lifestyle or location preferences.

ICU nurses or RTs with an interest in research.
There may be RNs or RTs within your institution who are interested in moving into research. These health professionals have excellent clinical knowledge but will require a lot of research training. For RNs, there may be union issues as research staff are typically non-union so you will need to check with your hospital's HR department. If your RN staff are unionized they will need to suspend their union status or leave the union in order to take a research position. 

Connect with clinical trial management diploma programs.
Multiple training programs exist across Canada. This is an opportunity to recruit recent graduates or host a placement student who can transition into an RC role.

Recent graduates of research degrees (e.g., Master’s degree, PhD degree in clinically-related areas).
Depending on their clinical and research background, these individuals may require a lot of training to take on an RC position. 

Recent graduates of the LifTING / Sepsis Canada research training programs.
Applications for the upcoming LifTING cohort will open in spring 2024.

HOSPITAL BENEFITS

• Good Public Relations (PR)
  An active research program is good PR as it can raise the hospital’s profile and improve the perception of the hospital in the local community. Some hospitals, e.g. Niagara Health, have made their research programs a key feature of their hospital PR program. Research may also be part of your hospital’s strategic plan - if yes, you can leverage this to request support for your research program from the hospital. If not, you should encourage the hospital to include research as part of its strategic plan.  
• Donations
  A research program has the potential to facilitate donations to the hospital and to attract donors who value cutting-edge research.
• Networking
  Participation in research networks can facilitate partnerships with other hospitals (e.g., CCCTG, the COVID 19 Network of Networks, CCIRNet).
• Knowledge Translation
  Research improves local knowledge translation by exposing clinical staff to cutting-edge care. This facilitates learning by bedside clinicians and ensures that study findings are translated quickly from studies to clinical practice. (Boaz et al. 2015)
• Staff Retention
  Research participation has been shown to improve staff satisfaction/retention. (Hacker et al. 2013)
• Staff Recruitment
  Research participation may improve recruitment by attracting clinical staff with an interest in research as well as those who find it compelling as a departmental endeavour (Staffileno & McKinney, 2011). It may also lead to recruiting research staff who ultimately take on other roles within the institution in the future.
• Collaboration
  Research participation can provide opportunities for inter-hospital, national, and international collaboration.
  
  

PATIENT BENEFITS

• Quality of Care
  Multiple studies have shown that hospitals that participate in research have improved patient care and outcomes (Majumdar et al. 2008; Downing et al. 2017; Du Bois et al. 2005; Rochon and du Bois, 2011).
• Equitable Access
  Research participation improves access to cutting-edge therapies.
• Personalized Care
  Patients enrolled in studies may feel like they are getting more personalized attention as they have direct access to the research team.
• Study Generalizability
  When research studies are conducted across a broad range of clinical settings, the patient population is more diverse and the study results are more generalizable. Conversely, if research is conducted only in academic centres located in urban centres, the results may not be generalizable to the community hospital setting. Patients in community hospitals tend to be older and have more co-morbidities. (Tsang et al., 2022) They are also more likely to be recent immigrants and essential workers and are more likely to experience socio-economic deprivation (Public Health Ontario, 2021).

Also see How do I keep the clinical team engaged in research?

• Keep Them Engaged
  Ensure that physicians and clinical staff are aware of current studies by promoting research activities and providing constant feedback about study processes. Celebrate your successes as a research program by announcing when studies are published and sharing the publications with all staff.
• Shared Decision-Making
  Involve clinical staff in decisions about which studies to join. Try to find studies that fit within the specific interests of the clinical staff (e.g., in a unit with a lot of cardiovascular disease, look for cardiovascular studies)
• Create a Research Council or Advisory Committee
  Create an interdisciplinary research council including physicians, nurses, RTs, and allied health staff. This keeps clinical staff engaged in current research activities and makes them stakeholders in the program’s success. If possible, try to include patient partners and decision makers. This will broaden the support and buy-in from a wider group of stakeholders.
• Educational Opportunities
  Offer “lunch and learns” or other educational events for clinical staff as an opportunity to teach them about ongoing studies. Holding “journal clubs” to review the results of studies that the unit has completed can demonstrate the direct impact of research on patient care through evidence based practices. For RT or allied health-related studies, hold educational events to teach the protocol to staff (sponsors may be willing to pay for this). Offering food at these educational events may help incentivize attendance.
• Create Research Visibility
  Inclusive events and publications can raise the profile of research at your site. For example, the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre hosts an annual research conference that engages local researchers to present their studies and become acquainted with other local researcher projects. In addition, they publish a high-level annual research report that is presented to leadership.
• Demonstrate Staff Appreciation
  Demonstrate your appreciation to departments who have contributed to your success (e.g., pharmacy, laboratory, decision support, blood bank, nurses, ward clerks) to help ensure their continued support. Tokens of appreciation could include gift cards for staff, treating departments to lunch, celebrating their efforts and successes with their peers at research or department meetings
• Authorship
  Ensure that co-investigators and research staff are credited on publications resulting from studies that they were involved in and contributed to. Details regarding authorship should be discussed during contract negotiations.
• Develop a Communication Strategy
  Newsletters, creating a dedicated research page on your hospital’s internal website, and creating a research binder for your unit with materials for potential/ongoing studies are some strategies to engage staff in research activities.