Grep · sample report

Research Participant Recruiter — Get a recruitment plan for your study: a screener, channels, quotas, incentive benchmarks, consent notes, outreach copy and a shortlist of places to recruit.

workon demandoperational
Inputs used for this sample
Research Participant Recruiter

Participant profile: Ward nurses in NHS hospitals who chart in an EHR at least 3 shifts a week

Study type and goal: 2-week diary study on handover documentation pain points

Region or market: UK

Sample size, budget or timeline (optional): 12 participants, £2,000 incentives, fieldwork in March

Recruit 12 NHS ward nurses for a March diary study: £2,000 works only if you recruit through free professional channels, outside NHS employer routes

Scope: UK recruitment plan for a 2-week diary study on handover documentation pain points with 12 ward nurses in NHS hospitals who chart in an EHR on at least 3 shifts a week, £2,000 incentive budget, fieldwork in March. Assumptions (mine): March 2027, remote diary, about 3.5 hours of participant effort in total, and no patient data collected. Today is 6 October 2026.

The plan hinges on two sourced constraints. First, a study that recruits NHS staff because they are NHS employees, or on NHS premises, needs Study Wide Review before recruiting (HRA/IRAS staff study guidance). Second, £2,000 across 12 people is about £166.67 each (my arithmetic) before any platform fee or over-recruiting. So I recommend recruiting through professional bodies and communities, paying about £150 to each completer, and keeping a small reserve.

1. Screener questions

Hard criteria first. Anyone who fails a DISQUALIFY item ends the screener.

# Question Answer options and logic
1 Do you currently work as a registered nurse on an inpatient ward in an NHS hospital in the UK? Yes: QUALIFY. No, or community, outpatient, agency-only or private hospital only: DISQUALIFY
2 In a typical week, on how many shifts do you chart in an electronic health record (EHR)? 3 or more: QUALIFY. 0 to 2: DISQUALIFY
3 Which EHR do you use on your ward? Free text plus list. QUOTA: at least 2 different systems across the sample
4 What type of ward do you work on? Medical, surgical, older people, other acute: QUOTA. Emergency department, theatres, outpatients: DISQUALIFY
5 Do you take part in shift handover on that ward at least 3 times a week? Yes: QUALIFY. No: DISQUALIFY
6 What is your NHS band? Band 5 or Band 6: QUOTA. Band 7 or above, or student: DISQUALIFY (the study targets bedside charting)
7 Which shift pattern do you mainly work? Days only, nights only, rotating: QUOTA (at least 3 including nights)
8 How long have you worked on a ward? Under 2 years, 2 years or more: QUOTA
9 Do you, or does a close family member, work in market research, UX, or for an EHR or digital health supplier? Yes: DISQUALIFY (conflict of interest)
10 Have you joined a paid research study in the last 6 months? Yes, 3 or more: DISQUALIFY (professional-participant check). 0 to 2: QUALIFY
11 Describe in 2 or 3 sentences the last time handover documentation slowed you down. Open text. DISQUALIFY if vague, copied or generic (articulation check)
12 Can you write a 5 to 10 minute diary entry on most days for 14 days, outside working hours, without patient details? Yes: QUALIFY. No: DISQUALIFY

2. Quotas and over-recruit

I recommend recruiting 16 to enrol (33% over), below the 30 to 50% I would normally use for diary studies, because the budget cannot pay for more. This is my recommendation, not a sourced rate. Two weeks of daily entries after night shifts is a high dropout risk.

Segment Target n Recruit n
Band 5 7 9
Band 6 5 7
Rotating or nights included 6 (minimum 3) 8
Days only 6 8
Under 2 years on a ward 4 5
2 years or more 8 11
At least 2 EHR systems, at least 2 ward types all all

Segments overlap, so each row sums to the total of 12 completers or 16 enrolled.

3. Channels

I opened each page below. "Unknown" means the page gave no figure. I did not verify subreddit rules, because Reddit blocked the fetch, so check the rules before any post. Post only where each community allows it.

Channel Reach Cost Speed Fit notes Source
RCN Digital Nursing Forum 4292 members Free to ask; RCN membership and login needed to take part. Posting rules unknown 1 to 2 weeks (estimate) Best audience match: digital nursing. Also has a Facebook group linked from the page RCN Digital Nursing Forum
RCN Research Forum 6273 members Free; rules unknown 1 to 2 weeks (estimate) Research-minded nurses, so skews towards academics and may over-represent senior staff RCN Research Forum
BCS Nursing Specialist Group Unknown Free. Welcomes members and non-members; contact [email protected] 1 to 2 weeks (estimate) Nurses interested in IT and recording of care. Good for informed participants, but biased towards digital enthusiasts BCS Nursing specialist group
r/NursingUK 53k members (third-party mirror) Free Days Large, general UK nursing audience. Rules unverified; many members are not ward-based GummySearch r/NursingUK
In-House Research HCP panel Unknown Per-participant fee (not published). Incentive varies by project 1 to 2 weeks (estimate) UK-registered agency with an HCP panel; pays the day of interview, so diary payment terms need agreeing In-House Research HCP panel
Apogee Group Recruitment Unknown Per-participant fee (not published) 1 to 2 weeks (estimate) Lists nursing projects with a screening form. The example shown pays £80 for a 75-minute focus group; the page is undated Apogee nursing projects
Respondent (UK panel) 4.3M+ participants in 150+ countries; UK share unknown Per-participant fee; USD pricing example in the help centre Days Healthcare page describes licence and NPI checks, which are US credentials. Whether UK nurses are verified against the NMC register is unconfirmed Respondent healthcare
User Interviews Unknown Subscription or per-participant fee; USD Days Has a healthcare research offer; UK nurse supply not confirmed User Interviews incentive report

Recommendation: lead with the three free professional channels and r/NursingUK. Hold a paid agency in reserve only if screener completions are below about 30 by mid-January (my threshold). Agency fees are unpublished, so the £2,000 may not cover them, and you would need separate budget.

4. Incentive benchmarks

No source I found gives a UK GBP rate for paying NHS ward nurses in a diary study. The benchmarks below are adjacent, so treat the recommended figure as a judgement.

Benchmark Figure Source
NIHR public contributor rates (a UK guide for public involvement, not market research) £27.50 for about 1 hour; £55 for about 2 hours; £82.50 for about half a day NIHR payment guidance
NHS Band 5 pay, England, 2026/27 £16.40 to £19.97 per hour NHS Pay Bands, Band 5
Respondent guidance for professionals Benchmark on the participant's hourly rate; consider paying at least twice it Respondent help centre
User Interviews (US, USD, updated 4 January 2025) Remote multi-day studies most commonly paid $100, $150 and $250 User Interviews report

Recommended amount: £150 per completer (my estimate). Twice the top Band 5 hourly rate is about £39.94 (my arithmetic), and 3.5 hours of effort at that rate is about £140. £150 sits just above it. The US figures show similar scale for multi-day studies, but they are in dollars and not UK-specific.

Staged payment (recommendation): £30 after the onboarding call, £90 on completing at least 10 of the 14 diary days, £30 after the exit interview.

Budget check (my arithmetic): 12 completers at £150 is £1,800. If 4 of the 16 enrolled leave after the first stage, paying them £30 each adds £120, giving £1,920, which leaves £80 of the £2,000. A 13th completer would use most of that headroom, so cap completers at 12. There is no room for a platform fee.

Limits on paying NHS staff: I did not find an NHS or NMC rule that bars paying nurses as private individuals. Whether payment counts as taxable income, or needs employer declaration, is unconfirmed. Ask participants to take part off duty, and ask your finance or ethics contact before payment. The MRS Code of Conduct 2023 applies if you are an MRS member (MRS Code of Conduct), but I did not confirm its incentive wording.

5. Consent and data handling

This is practical guidance, not legal advice. Have your data protection officer or ethics contact review it before launch.

6. Outreach copy

Public post (100 words):

Ward nurses wanted for a paid 2-week diary study. We are researching how handover documentation works in your EHR and where it slows you down. You qualify if you are a registered nurse on an NHS inpatient ward and chart in an EHR on at least 3 shifts a week. You would write a short diary entry (5 to 10 minutes) on most days for 14 days, off duty, with no patient details, plus two short calls. Fieldwork is in March. You receive £150 in three stages. Places are limited to 12. Check the criteria and apply here: [screener link]

Direct message (65 words):

Hello, I am running a paid diary study on handover documentation for NHS ward nurses who chart in an EHR at least 3 shifts a week. It involves a short diary entry most days for 2 weeks in March, plus two calls, for £150 in total. Entries must contain no patient details. If this fits you, the quick screener is here: [screener link]. Thank you.

7. Risks and next steps

Risk Why it matters Mitigation (recommendation)
Budget gap £2,000 / 12 is about £166.67 each, with no room for agency or platform fees Use free channels; cap completers at 12; pay only completers in full
Employer route needed A trust-based route needs Study Wide Review, which I judge unlikely to finish by March from a standing start (my inference) Keep recruitment outside NHS employer channels
No-shows User Interviews found 10% at $60 per hour, about 8% at $100 and under 5% at $150 for B2C moderated sessions in a US dataset (not diary studies) Staged pay, reminder messages, and a 33% buffer
Dropout Diaries after night shifts are hard to keep up Short entry prompt, voice-note option, a day-3 check-in, partial-payment rule
Fraud or fake nurses Open posts attract opportunists Ask for NMC PIN at the exit call stage (not at screening) and check it on the NMC register, ask for a ward-based detail in the articulation question, one entry per person, pay by bank transfer to a named account
Sample bias RCN and BCS digital groups lean towards enthusiasts Set quotas on band, shift pattern and EHR system, and recruit from r/NursingUK too

Do next

  1. Confirm with your ethics committee or the HRA decision tool that recruiting through professional bodies and public communities avoids Study Wide Review.
  2. Email the RCN forum teams and [email protected] to ask what they allow, and read r/NursingUK's rules, before posting anything.
  3. Build the screener in a tool that stores no patient data, and set the quotas above.
  4. Ask your finance team how to pay nurses and whether any tax or declaration applies.
  5. Decide by mid-January whether to seek extra budget for an agency.

Open items

Coverage note

Not reachable: the reddit.com page (bot block, so a third-party mirror was used for size), and the NIHR page through the standard fetch (read through a different extract tool). The MRS Code was not read in full.

Sources