Participant Recruitment Script

Appendix A. Participant Recruitment Overview/Script

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a federal agency within Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has a project that is aimed at identifying the barriers and driving factors of equitable personal protective equipment (PPE) protection for female workers in hazardous environments. The focus will be on female frontline workers in healthcare, emergency medical service (EMS), firefighting, mining, and construction industries. Our primary outcome in this pilot study is to develop and subsequently pilot a framework that safety managers in the field can use to enhance PPE equity for their workers.

This study involves participating in a focus group with others who work in a similar job. The focus group will be completed during your normal workday at a time convenient for you. Your participation is voluntary and confidential. You have the right to discontinue your participation without penalty at any time. Answering these questions pose minimal risk to you. Questions are not sensitive in nature but if you do not feel comfortable answering a question, please remain in the group but do not feel compelled to answer and wait for the next question.

This research project has a Certificate of Confidentiality from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This means that all data is confidential, and no individual data will be reported – only results reported on an aggregate level will be produced. Any document that is published using the data will not contain information that could be used to identify you.

You will not be paid or reimbursed for participating. However, you may indirectly benefit in that your efforts will be used to improve strategies and resources around PPE protection for women. No other alternative procedures are available for this study.

Participation in the focus group will take 1 hour to complete. If you have questions about the project, you can contact the Principal Investigator, Dr. Patrick Dempsey (PDempsey@cdc.gov) and the Primary Study Contact, Dr. Katherine Yoon (NYoon@cdc.gov). For questions about your rights, your privacy, or harm to you, contact the Chair of the NIOSH Institutional Review Board (IRB) in the Human Research Protection Program at (513) 533-8591 or Cin-hsrb@cdc.gov.

* This template is based on a previous NIH Protocol Template for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Involving Humans. It maintains much of the content and structure of the NIH template but has been tailored to CDC/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health research.