The bad news was that Lydia's budget was just about bustedagainand the winter sport season hadn't even ended. Lydia had always operated the City Junior College sports medicine program on a budget that most athletic trainers would find impossibly meager. She took a certain pride in her ability to stretch her resources as far as she did. One problem she wasn't sure how to solve, creatively or otherwise, was her aging equipment. Her modalities broke down so often she was seriously considering not having them repaired. She requested the funds to purchase new equipment every year, but every year she was turned down. It was depressing.

The good news was that the chairperson of the physical education department had just informed her of a wonderful opportunity that might remedy the situation. An old college buddy of his was now director of research and development at Mackenzie Medical Co. Mackenzie had just developed a new analgesic cream designed to relieve muscular aches and pains. They needed to test the product for efficacy before obtaining FDA approval. The research director wondered whether there might be anyone at City Junior College who could run the clinical trials, and the chairperson had immediately thought of Lydia. Mackenzie would pay her $1,000 and the college $25,000 to conduct the trials. Mackenzie would provide all the materials, design the research protocol, and analyze the data. The only thing Lydia would have to do is find 150 subjects over a nine-month period and implement the test protocols with each of them. The chairperson was willing to let Lydia use the $25,000 for her program in any way she wanted.

Although Lydia had several concerns, she immediately accepted the offer. She was excited about the prospect of a $25,000 infusion into her program. She wasn't sure where she was going to find the time to conduct the work the study required. Between her athletic training duties and her teaching responsibilities, she already carried one of the heaviest loads in the department. The study would require a 30-minute interview with each subject both before and after the clinical trial. That amounted to 150 hours she would have to find somewhere. "Oh well," thought Lydia, "creativity is my middle name!"

Questions for Analysis

1. What alternatives should Lydia consider for using the $25,000 given her small budget and the poor state of her equipment? What options does she have?
2. Which of the options that you developed would you choose? Why? What are the disadvantages, if any, of choosing this option?
3. What suggestions would you give Lydia about how to manage her time during the course of the clinical trials? What methods can she employ in order to do the work she must accomplish and complete the clinical trials?
4. According to the case description, Lydia made the decision to undertake the project immediately. What are the risks of jumping to such a quick decision? What are the risks associated with postponing the decision? What strategies might Lydia have used to give herself more time to critically examine the proposal?