Dental hygienists' role in practice based research: PEARL Network evaluation.

Purpose: The goal of this paper is to evaluate the PEARL Network's satisfaction with training/support and assess the relationship between practice research coordinators (PRCs) involvement and study participation.

Methods: At the PEARL Network 2011 Annual Meeting, an evaluation form was completed by practitioner-investigators and PRCs who attended the annual meeting. Results from the paper evaluation form were entered into an Excel database, and analyzed using the statistical analysis software SPSS. The bivariate correlation test, Pearson Correlation, was conducted, and results were considered significant if p<0.05.

Results: During a program evaluation among 84 network respondents, a positive correlation (p=0.004) was found between the number of PRCs and the number of studies in which a site participates. In addition, there was a positive correlation between satisfaction with the training, support and involvement of PRCs in organizing study activities (p=0.008). There was also positive correlation between satisfaction with training/support and the number of PRCs utilized by the office (p=0.039).

Conclusion: Practice research coordinators are key members of the research team, and they are important to conducting clinical studies in everyday practice.