Table 2 Detailed description of the intervention meeting

Date and Time

22 June 2011 at 9am

Attendance

18 clinical staff members directly involved in the recruitment process (that is, distributing information to potential participants, screening for eligibility and randomising those eligible and consenting). The staff mix was consultant obstetricians, obstetric registrar, senior house officers and senior midwives (midwifery managers and staff midwives with greater than 5 year’s clinical experience).

PowerPoint presentation of 10-minute duration

The content of the presentation included the following: background to the trial, sample size estimates and monthly recruitment targets, overall recruitment rates across all sites, monthly recruitment rates across all sites, trends in recruitment with a focus on Site A trends.

Discussion of 20-minute duration

Focused on possible reasons for slow recruitment: examples of reasons offered included busyness in the antenatal clinic impacting on information distribution; mindfulness in remembering to distribute; busyness in the labour admission room and the time taken to complete the trial screening and register forms and to obtain consent and randomise participants; and junior staff confidence in recruitment processes and in not performing an ACTG on those women randomised to IA.

Solutions offered

Suggested solutions included a collective and concerted effort to distribute the study information (study information booklets would subsequently be placed in the consulting rooms in addition to being distributed as women checked in); reminders from the consultant obstetricians to their obstetric team to distribute the information; managing the screening process as a usual admission procedure on all women presenting with signs of labour, and senior midwifery staff supporting junior staff in recruiting participants to the trial.