The difficulties of recruiting participants from a non-dominant culture into palliative care research

Recruitment of participants from minority cultures is problematic for any type of research; but more particularly for palliative care research however, because of the perceived additional vulnerability of participants who are facing the end of their life. Even though the goal of palliative care is to improve the quality of the remaining life, the processes involving such vulnerable people require careful consideration. This consideration is doubly important when participants come from minority cultures. This study discusses the recruitment difficulties in a study focusing on the palliative care needs of Chinese people in Australia. Despite being part of Australian society for most of its' colonized history, Chinese people remain a minority culture and place great importance on their particular culture and traditions. Significant recruitment issues were experienced due to language and cultural constraints, including that death and dying are taboo subjects. The access and recruitment processes utilized in this research are discussed as well as diverse strategies used to achieve involvement.