End of Jan dicates ending of my 1st study or Protocol taking tog with 1 of my Senior (as in my workplace related..) 4 long weeks of in-hse subjects, which mostly they stayed abt 3 days & 2nights only per week. In between we do encounter problems, such as in earlier part of 2nd week subject being withdrawn due to low Haemaglobin level in layman term having slight Anaemia--> low red blood cell count.
Got another subject also got withdrawn during the last week of admission due to urine Cotinine positive. Traces of nicotine or he unknowingly smoked after his 3rd period of discharged. Luckily after tat no1 got withdrawn or dropped out. If not we might have to run "strangglers cohort" as we don't have insufficent data/subjects 2 submit (which meant re-Screen for new subjects again..)
As for our Protocol, esp 1st day breakfast need 2 have a standerised items inside such as DE-caffeinated coffee/tea, orange juice, cream milk, certain grams of sugar/butter/jam, need cheese with white breads too. It meant tat subjects need to FINISHED ALL the items distributed.. So b4 start of our 1st week study, my colleague had a hard time hunting for the dietician as she's on leave. However she managed 2 speak 2 the supervisor & thus our 1st week went smoothly.
But on 2nd week, chaos started during breakfast day as firstly the kitchen came late as usual then some subjects refused 2 drink coffee or milk alone.. Kitchen side also unable 2 come up with other alternatives thus no choice we need to get subjects' cooperation to subsitute with jus plain milk. As there were also different study going on, so the other group were at 1st quite unhappy as they jus had only either western food/asian diet but explanation were given so they accepted it. As my Senior were dosing them-she then got feedback from some of them was not completed such as traces of sugar, butter or even drinks. But the nurse serving them didn't even checked their plates.. Just then from the subsequent weeks, nurses serving meal were reminded to check tat ALL needs 2 b completed.
A few incidents happened from the kitchen, which quite shocked me as it shouldn't happened due to its *reputation PTE hosp!.. They supplied dessert's base of it having some "dark particles" which subject almost finished it up-after investigation from kitchen side its the manufacter's "pruree" which caused it, it's safe 4 comsumption as according to them. Fruit juices such as apple, orange commonly given during meal-times to subjects, normally upon receiving them we'll placed them in chiller tog with desserts (if we're free.) If not, then we'll placed them in monitering room. However to the subject's dismay, on 1 occasion while just opening up the juice--> sediments could be seen at bottom base & on top got a "foul-smelling" scent too. So so of our nurses went to look at the exiry date, it's 1 day more b4 its not fit 4 comsumption. So again matter was reported 2 our Lead nurse, after speaking to the in-charge guess wat was the reply from them? The juices turned bad as a result of we didn't placed it in chiller or the temp inside chiller was different from theirs.. Duh, upon hearing tat most of us were stunned at their replies.
The last incident happened during last week ago, when 1 of my study subject were hungrily munching into the sandwiches.. When 1 of them saw a black thing stuck onto the end of the bread, then he spit out whatever inside his mouth. Some of them even said it's STALE bread!! After inspection by both the kitchen staff & nurse, they decided 2 replace a new sandwich.. Again we suspected it could be leftover by some of their pats so they kept it aside then gave to our side. No prizes 4 guessing wat's tat black stuff.. Yucks if it's for me, i would have vmitted out the whole bread & go w/o food instead but for them no choice. [ P.S: Sometimes, i kinda of pity our in-hse subjects day-in & out some gets sick of the same kind of food almost everyday. While some get treated with *something EXTRA inside their food.. ]
Even on their discharged days, nurses need 2 b extra-careful too. As some stuff might just go missing from the room--> the most common Quilt 2 keep them warm often from the cold air-con inside their rooms.. We had a few incidences when cleaning the room by auntie in-charge, nurses were often the ones reprimanded 4 missing quilt ?! Even thought we had reminded repeated to them upon packing their stuff, to take out only the green covers then leave the quilt on the top of the pillow. But some either 1st-timers dun understand simple English/instruction will simply take the WHOLE quilt & dumped in into the laundry bag.. Where even if u wan find it, also u need 2 wear gloves & dig into mountains of dirty linens. So now 2 prevent such incident from occuring again, either protocol nurses/ discharge nurse need 2 do a spot-check b4 subjects all allowed 2 leave.
Even though got a few complains here & there we still managed to carry on & closed the Study with about 4 Filenotes so far..(which among all the studies carried out, its the least among as i read from a email yesterday~) I have learnt quite alot too from screening, discharges, handling subjects' complaints & most importantly building rapport with the nursing team, other depts such as Recruitment, Admin (in the midst of) too.. Also talking quite comfortable with some of the subjects in the study, hopefully will get 2 know them more in future studies~
