Newly published articles about the CARDS
WINRS created its Community Advisors on Research Design and Strategies (CARDS) program in 2010 with a vision of bringing unheard voices into research. Seven years later, the CARDS are still going strong, meeting twice every month with researchers from UW-Madison and other institutions. How have we managed to sustain this unique program of lay advisors from under-represented communities? What do researchers say about the program? Does CARDS feedback actually make research materials more clear and inviting to prospective participants? A pair of papers in the February issue of Research in Nursing & Health answer these questions and more about the CARDS program.
In “A Case Study of Engaging Hard-to-Reach Participants in the Research Process: Community Advisors on Research Design and Strategies (CARDS)®”, we describe the participants in the program, our process for helping researchers obtain useful feedback from the CARDS® on research materials, and what we have learned from seven years of facilitating meetings between the CARDS and researchers.
A companion paper, “Can Lay Community Advisors Improve the Clarity of Research Participant Recruitment Materials and Increase the Likelihood of Participation?” describes a mixed methods study that examined whether the use of research materials revised by the CARDS increased the likelihood that potential participants would enroll in a study. We’re excited about these publications and hope they’re useful to your work!