Lalitha Kunduru: The Challenges of Patient Recruitment BACK

Published by AFAR

I have completed over a month of research and have fallen into a daily routine. I have learned the difficulties of gaining approval from clinics to recruit patients there. I realize that it is a concern for clinics because patients with appointments are generally sick and do not want to be bothered by research studies. They may already be anxious about having to visit the doctor and don’t want to fill out any unnecessary paperwork, especially for a medical student who is not treating them directly. Although I have accepted that getting rejected is a part of patient recruitment in research, I have learned that others are very receptive to helping research and want to spend the time to talk to me and ask about my project. I have learned that some patients cringe at the word "research" so I have started to just use the word "study". So far, I have completed twenyt-two interviews. Some days provide better results than others and I have learned that this is just due to chance and there is not much that I can do about it.

My shadowing experiences have been incredibly useful. I’ve learned that geriatrics is a field where a lot of different sides of medicine overlap. It is a challenging field because patients usually come in with multiple problems and it is necessary to manage the patient as a whole. It is important to take into account how many medications a patient is taking and to make sure this list does not get unmanageable. The end goal is to improve the quality of life for the patient and sometimes this may include tradeoffs. One of the most inspiring things for me this summer has been seeing how devoted and caring some of the family members of the patients are. Because I had seen geriatrics patients in hospitals being neglected in the past, I was happy to see that this is not always true. I am very grateful for the experiences that I am gaining because I am extremely confident that they will be valuable for me regardless of the field that I pursue. Furthermore, with each day I am attracted more and more to the field of geriatrics. I want to play a role in taking care of elderly patients one day; and the physicians that I have gotten to shadow are some of the best role models that I have encountered in the medical field.

Lalitha Kunduru
University of North Carolina

Diary of an MSTAR Student" follows scholars in the 2012 Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) Program, highlighting their summer experiences. As they continue their path of research, training and clinical practice, read their daily thoughts at www.afar.org/mstarblog. New diary entries are posted every day, so check back soon.