A multi-modal recruitment strategy using social media and internet-mediated methods to recruit a multidisciplinary, international sample of clinicians to an online research study

BACKGROUND: Challenges exist in recruiting an international sample of clinicians and researchers to an online survey. Traditional recruitment methods remain relevant but issues such as narrow geographical reach, high cost and time intensity limit what can be achieved when aiming to recruit an international, multi-disciplinary sample. Internet-mediated and social media approaches to recruitment and engagement offer new, untested ways of capitalizing upon existing professional networks. OBJECTIVE: To develop, use and appraise a multi-modal recruitment strategy for an online, international survey regarding the management of shoulder pain. METHODS: Traditional recruitment methods were combined with internet-mediated recruitment methods to form a multi-modal recruitment strategy. An overview of the development of this three-month recruitment strategy is provided and the value and role of each strand of the recruitment strategy discussed. RESULTS: In response to the multi-modal recruitment strategy, data was received from 565 clinicians and researchers from 31 countries (64% UK). Complete data was received from 387 respondents with no demographic differences between respondents who completed, and those who started but did not complete the survey. Over 30% of responses were received within 1 week, 50% within 4 weeks and 81% within 8 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the acceptability and international, multidisciplinary reach of a low cost multi-modal recruitment strategy for an online survey of international clinicians and researchers. Incorporating the use of social media proved to be an effective, time and resource-efficient recruitment strategy for this online survey and appeared to enhance clinician engagement. A multimodal recruitment strategy is worthy of consideration for future online surveys of clinicians and researchers

‘What should we teach?’ A U.K. survey comparing clinician and academic views on content of the pre-registration musculoskeletal physiotherapy curriculum

Evolving evidence underpinning musculoskeletal physiotherapy challenges the definitions of contemporary clinical practice and pre-registration curricula. This research uses an online national survey to compare clinician (272) and lecturer (61) views on the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’s four pillars of practice (manual therapy and therapeutic handling; exercise, movement, and rehabilitation; therapeutic and diagnostics technologies; and allied approaches, including psychologically informed approaches) with the aim of establishing their clinical and educational utility. Findings indicate that close alignment exists between practising U.K. musculoskeletal physiotherapists and U.K. pre-registration physiotherapy lecturers on the ongoing relevance of exercise therapy and psychologically informed approaches to behaviour change. The paper also shows that a mismatch exists in the clinical and educational use of both manual therapy and electrotherapy between practising physiotherapists and physiotherapy lecturers. Future research should focus on the highlighted need to continue to align pre-registration musculoskeletal curricula with both the evidence base and clinical practice for the curricular areas of electrotherapy and manual therapy. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 . </jats:p

Demographics of complete and partial survey responders.

<p>Demographics of complete and partial survey responders.</p

Overview of common survey recruitment approaches.

<p>Overview of common survey recruitment approaches.</p

Number of unique page views according to access device category.

<p>Number of unique page views according to access device category.</p

Multi-modal survey recruitment proforma.

<p>Multi-modal survey recruitment proforma.</p