Recruitment of oncology nurses for Internet research: issues and future directions

To provide future directions for Internet research based on issues raised during the recruitment process of an Internet survey of oncology nurses.

Throughout the research process, the research staff recorded issues as they arose and wrote memos regarding recruitment issues and possible reasons for the issues. Weekly group discussions were conducted, and written records of the discussions were kept. The written memos and records were reviewed, and the content was analyzed.

The recruitment issues included flexibility required, mutual trust, changing Internet dynamics, and potential selection bias.

As the issues indicated, recruiting nurses for the study only through the Internet did not work well.

For future Internet research, the authors suggest using multiple Internet and real settings for recruitment, a variety of strategies, the quota sampling method, and creative motivation strategies.