Okay, how about we share some of those hilarious/ridiculous moments we have experienced?
CRAs travel a lot...and believe me...you can meet some interesting characters! Also, when you travel, you are in a more vulnerable position. After all, you are in a city you don't know, no one to talk with, you are sleeping in a hotel that may not be as decent as the reviews indicated...but you have to suck it up and sleep there so you can do your job at the site during the day.

So here is my first story....

I have a recent case...yeah..it completely blew up my mind. I had this new study and the CRO CRA went to the site twice. She was getting ready for the 3rd visit and I still had no data in house....she said she could not collect the CRFs because data was missing and proper source documents were not available. I knew something was wrong....it was a straight forward protocol and there was no way she could not collect ANY CRFs during her first 2 visits and 12 subjects enrolled.

I head to the site to join her and see what was going on. OH MY GOD! I found a cat fight between the coordinator an the CRA. The things they said to each other were unbelievable. To the point that I thought..."this can not be happening..I am probably on candid camera or being punked!" It was like having 2 wild cats in the monitoring room. The coordinator accused the CRA of "digging dirt during her visits" and the CRA accused her of being abusive.
As I was trying to bring back some common sense, the QA Manager and another Nurse come into the room as well to attack the CRA. I literally asked them "why are you here?" and they said the coordinator had requested them to witness the trouble the CRA was causing. By then, the poor CRA was crying her eyes out.

Does Sherry Springer ring a bell?

Now I had 3 mature ladies, all of them with Masters under their arm, and being beyond unprofessional.

I finally said, "Look, I don't know what has been going on here but we will take care of this later. In the mean time, I want my data....so I suggest you get your selves together, start acting in a professional manner and work on those source documents" I called the investigator and informed him of his staff's behavior. He was so embarrassed.

As you can imagine, I suggested to replace the CRA ASAP (just for the, just for her own sake!).

Ok,,,that is my first story, more to come! Anyone else???

Hello Lorena,

I have to say that this does not surprise me. You meet all kind people in this industry.
I will address this in two ways:
First, if the blame is be placed on the SC. I can say that there are some SCs out there who are just defensive from the get go. They are almost allergic to suggestions/corrections. I have approached these Scs with tact and made them understand that it is indeed a privilege to have some one come and correct yourwork to make sure that it is well done. It is the raison d'etre of the CRA. It works sometimes.
Secondly, there some CRA out there who believe that becausae that have the backing of GCP/ICH and FDA regulations, they can talk to ther sites in a disrespectful manner. They rule with the iron fist. They are rude and belittle to the SCs. This approach is also counter productive.
It looks like in your case, the worst of both worlds met and it created total chaos.

It is best to be the site's friend, believe me!!!! It works for they go the extra mile for you. You have to be genuinely interested in who they are because depending on long and demanding the protocol is, you will need them all.
You have to care, you have to be responsive to the inquiries ( answer emails from the sites or phone call in a prompt manner) so that they can trust you. Then the relationship begins and they will do everything you ask even if the wehine while doing it.

This my two cents
sorry for the mistakes mispellings and grammar), I did not proofread and besides this is not a monitoring report and I dont have a bossy manage to review it.
Ray