ICH GCP Case Study Featuring February 2024 Cohort Graduate Aastha

In preparation for further accreditation for CCRPS, we are conducting case studies with graduates to discuss their experience in our course in 15-30 minute interviews with our clinical research educator, Courtney. We invited students to share their feedback asking extensive questions on why they chose the course, what they felt while taking the course, and how the course has helped them after completion. Today, we share our second graduate case study interview from Aastha, a recent graduate of our ICH GCP certification program.

Key Takeaways

• The website clearly outlined the course contents and process which made enrollment easy.

• Videos were the most engaging part of the course.

• Course boosted confidence in interviewing for clinical research roles.

• Recommends course for the structure, convenience, certification gained, and career advancement.

• The course was very well structured, comprehensive, and easy to understand.

• The pace of the course allowed the learner to fully grasp concepts before moving on.

• The course covers important topics like ethical research and vulnerable populations in-depth.

Duration and access

• Completed course in about 1 week. Still accessing course to review concepts as needed.

• Access for a year is great.

Resume update

• Added ICH/GCP certification. Boosts profile views on LinkedIn.

Learning Platform experience

• Very smooth, organized, easy to navigate. Videos, PDFs, links all facilitated great learning.

Interview/career preparation

• Gave confidence to say I know these ethical standards and tools.

Most engaging aspect

• Videos explaining why ethical standards developed. Helped understand need for concepts.

Reasons to recommend

• Organized structure, convenient pace, useful certification, career advancement.

Topics:

• Favorite aspects of the CCRPS course

• Well-paced, easy to understand, and comprehensive. Allowed time to learn concepts fully.

• Small online community for questions was helpful.

• Very positive overall experience, remembered concepts well.

• Enhancements for the course

• No recommended changes. Appreciated videos, PDFs, quizzes, and self-paced nature.

• Provided for all types of learners.

Additional topics for the course

• Appreciated in-depth coverage of ethical research and vulnerable populations. Surprised this was covered so well.

Website highlights

• Website clearly outlined course contents, process, and enrollment. Easy to find the right certification offered.

• Motivation for choosing the course

• Wanted to enhance clinical research skills and knowledge. This course clearly provided ICH/GCP certification. Liked self-paced convenience.

Aastha (ICH GCP student) and Courtney Fulkerson (clinical research course educator) Transcript - March 20

Duration: 23 mins

@0:08 - Courtney: Well, it’s a delight to have you here and congrats on completing your CCRPS program. And thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. We pretty much are just going to go through a question and answer style conversation just to pretty much get your feedback on the program and kind of give some feedback that we can take into the future graduates if you’re okay with that.

@0:34 - APS: Okay.

@0:34 - Courtney: Could you share some of your favorite moments from the course at and your learning experience?

@0:44 - APS: Yes. So my experience with the [ICH GCP] course overall was just very extremely positive because it was just that at a really good learning pace that allowed me to take my time and just to organize myself in terms of just like learning each concept. So what I really thought was that it was very well structured and comprehensive overall that it just made it easy for me to understand like the new concepts that I was learning. So that was really great about this course that I appreciated and I think it made me remember a lot of concepts a lot more.

@1:20 - Courtney: What sort of program were you looking for when you chose this program specifically and were you placed at the content of the course once you got started?

@1:31 - APS: Yeah. I was just I wanted I was looking for a program that was there to enhance my skills and knowledge in terms of clinical research practices. I just wanted something to add to my resume something that I could add to my certifications to help just advance in the field to secure a better job. And I think a like here just doing it with CCRPS. It was just an amazing experience because, again, like I said, everything was not rushed, so I really took my time understanding each concept really well. There was a small community where I could always just like, talk into, there was a little chat block while I was learning, where we could just put in our application questions, and it was optional, but I just really thought it was a great learning tool. So overall, all of that just needed a very positive experience and I learned a lot.

@2:29 - Courtney: Yeah, that’s great. Is there any aspect of the course that you feel could have been enhanced to make the learning experience even more rewarding?

@2:38 - APS: Um, honestly, I really thought overall it was just a very rewarding experience for me because I’m so used to just doing my undergrad and masters, everything. Things have been just so like, go, go, go, and because this was so structured, but it didn’t like give you that, um, limitation on what you can do or how to learn. It just gave you a visual aspect, which was like the video training, as well as like the theoretical PDF that I could read from. It really helped with everyones learning styles. according to me, I think it’s just like a perfect overall package to contribute any type of learner.

@3:34 - Courtney: Are there any additional topics or elements that you wish were excluded that could have maybe further elevated your understanding of clinical research?

@3:44 - APS: You know, I really appreciated when they talked about ethical research in vulnerable populations. When I came to pregnant women and fetuses, or I came to prisoners or the mentally incapacitated, I really thought it went in really great detail. Having done my master’s in applied health, I have like a superficial level of information on that and I thought the certification courses, are many in the market that really offer this certification. However, this course just overall did a really good job going in depth, which I feel like wasn’t just, it wasn’t just covered just for the sake of covering content, but like the examples that were just presented and everything, all the information that was there was really great. So I, that was an aspect or a topic that I thought wouldn’t be covered. So I was surprised that it was covered.

@6:25 - Would you consider revisiting the course for a refresher? And then is there any specific information that you would want to see within a refresher course?

@6:35 - APS Yes, of course. I feel like a few years down the road, this is something that you should always just come back upon and just look at it, because all the information is just so dense that it’s hard for you to almost forget or just kind of go over certain details. If you’re in the field of clinical research, this is obviously something that I feel like every couple of years I would want to do a refresher course. And I feel like just going back to it, yes, there were a lot of major topics covered, but maybe if I’m doing a refresher course, I would just want to go back on informed consent, patient safety, vulnerable population, and data recording and handling, I feel like those would be like key refresher topics. I think key five concepts would be great to just refresh your memory and just highlight all the main concepts as well.

@8:55 - Courtney: Could you share what factors motivated you to choose this?

@9:00 - APS Yeah, I think what motivated me to choose this course typically was I was already in the lookout to enhance my skills and knowledge and advanced clinical research practices and I had been going through I think the other potentially competitive space that I was looking at was City, I think CITI or something because I am in Canada so I feel like most people who work at hospitals they kind of refer you to that however I had a really difficult time kind of just like navigating around the website and just figuring out what I really wanted they had plethora of options and it kind of got me really overwhelmed whereas when I just with one simple search and a click when I searched up what exactly I was looking for which was I see a GCP certification this was just there it told me exactly what it entailed, what it will teach me, and how I’l get my certification. And it was for me, it was just at my own pace and something that I’m just in that position where I’m looking for jobs. just wanted to take some time to learn and enhance my skills and add that to my resume. So this just was almost like a very easy option for me because it just catered exactly to me. So I really liked that and that was, it was just really easy for me to enroll.

@10:15 - Courtney: Can you share about your professional journey prior to embarking on this course and how you envisioned this course would contribute to your career growth?

@10:59 - APS: Yeah, so I I am just a very recent graduate from school, from Master’s. did my undergrad in medical science and then I did my master’s in applied health sciences. So I wanted to this year, I wanted to take some time after taking a year or two off. Wanted to branch off and kind of get into the clinical research space because your undergrad and masters, was heavily involved in research where I worked with individuals with multiple sclerosis and it was just something that was like very, it was great, I really enjoyed it, it was very practical. This very competitive and I could not just have my degrees as something that could highlight my accreditations in terms of job research. So I thought getting a certification like this would be very helpful because obviously if I’m getting into the clinical research space, I need to be able to hold up the ethical background, the ethical standards, and just have to comply to all these research tools. That was my motivation. And then after once I came across this course, I was like, this is perfect. I’m going to learn a little bit more and enhance my knowledge. And then maybe it’ll give me a little edge when I apply to job.

@12:39 - Courtney: Great. Okay. Then how long did it take you to complete the course and absorb the wealth of knowledge it offered? And then also do you feel that the duration of the course is adequate for the learning that it involves?

@12:51 - APS: It didn’t. Honestly, I’m just like one of those like go-getters type of people. If I started something, I need to be just, I just am in it. involved and absorbed. So I believe it didn’t take me more than a week to finish the course because that was just my goal. Just wanted to just indulge and just start learning about what is there and to make sure that I understood everything before I took the to apply to such positions. So it took me around a week, but however, after completing the course, doing the quiz, I think I still keep going back to certain topics and certain things that I learned to kind of just keep refreshing my thoughts and to just understand that it may be on a deeper level that I might have not understood the first time around as it is with many things we learned. So I thought I think we are able to access the course I believe for another year or even more, which is amazing because like you said, I feel like I can go back to it and refresh my memory until I don’t have that access anymore.

@14:41 - Courtney: Okay then after completing the course how did you update your resume to reflect the skills and knowledge that it gave you and then how has it enhanced your professional profile?

@14:49 - APS: Um honestly I think in my certifications category I have added the ICH GCP or the Advanced GCP to see in my thing. I feel like obviously it definitely puts me at the top of the pile along with others. I’m confident that this is definitely a great thing to have had on my resume,which I didn’t have before.

@15:51 - APS: Did [learning platform] facilitate a smooth and engaging learning process? Yes, of course. I feel like it was like I said, it was very structural. and such a comprehensive tool that everything about it was just very easy to navigate through from the videos to the PDFs that links were right under the video. So if someone is not a visual learner like myself, they could just go through all the slide along with the video which is a little bit more concise and they could just follow along if they needed more details. There were other tools such as PDFs that you could refer back to. So I feel like there was just no doubt in like the navigation process around the course. You could always go back to something. You could always come back to a slide or look for something specific.

@16:38 - Courtney: Can you share how the course boosted your confidence and prepared you for interviews or career advancements in clinical research?

@16:51 - APS: Yeah. The course has been very, very relevant to any role in clinical research at the moment. And I feel like it did give me a little boost of confidence for sure to be able to apply to all the just all the jobs that were actually specifically asking for, hey, to have knowledge of good clinical practice or ICH GCP, which before I was, I was like, yes, I learned about it. But I don’t know, you know what I mean, it was just never, I was never confident or definitely boosted my confidence in that aspect. And I’m able to now just say that, yes, I learned about this. I know about these. And like, I value what all these ethical tools that you need in clinical research and be able to apply it.

@17:48 - Courtney: For sure. What part of the course did you find most engaging and beneficial to your professional development?

@17:53 - APS: Um, I think the most engaging part, which I really appreciated overall. in the structural part were the videos because the videos were just really good in terms of when they started they started with the history of like why did we even need such ethical or ethical standards or such clinical practices in like how did we put them in order before when things started obviously these rules and regulations weren’t there so I feel like it did a great job in explaining why we need to learn because I feel like certain people have that like for me if I’m learning something I want to know why I need to learn it and what was the root of it so I feel like that the course did a really great job in that and sorry I didn’t get the second part of the question.

@19:35 - Courtney: What are some reasons that you would recommend this course to others based on your experience?

@19:40 - APS: Well, there’s many first I feel like one reason I would definitely say is that it was just very very organized and structured that you’re able to follow From point a to point b to c so that by the time you’re you have to write your exam you know exactly the path you’ve learned and like you know th chronological order I guess of like how the research practices came into application so I feel like that is one of the I feel like it was just super easy to navigate super convenient very user friendly so I felt like I think that is something that everyone wants nobody wants to get confused and overwhelmed with other concepts like I did with other websites I feel and other institutions so and then see I feel like obviously you’e getting such a great such a great certification to add to your profile and it’ll obviously boost your resume and boost your confidence and I feel like you’re obviously advancing your career in that part aspect of study obviously this is just one of the courses that you guys offer so there’s many others that I was also looking at just doing like a clinical research coordinator or an associate if I need if need be in the future so I feel like yeah I just definitely recommend this course to anyone and I feel like whoever is looking to advance in their career whenever this could just be a perfect time saving thing I think because it’s to the team you can take your time but you just know that it’s not going to drag on. I feel like it’s a great course.

@22:00 - Courtney: I appreciate your time and You took to share your experiences and it’s certainly gonna help us just refine the courses for future learners So I really appreciate you and our good luck

@22:26 - APS: Thank you so much Courtney Thank you for your time as well, and it was a great chat.

Connect with with Aastha our recent February 2024 graduate here.