Designing surveys for radiography and radiation therapy

Abstract

Surveys using standardised questionnaires are frequently used in the health area for research, to gather information to inform or improve clinical practice and to gage perceptions or attitudes towards particular issues. As we begin to conduct more studies in the areas of radiography and radiation therapy we need to ensure that it is essential that we use reliable and valid research methods so that findings are robust and, importantly, useable in clinical practice. This review focuses on how to design the questionnaire and highlights some key rules to help avoid the many pitfalls in survey design. The importance of the planning stage and time spent reviewing and revising questions is emphasised and the benefits and challenges of using existing instruments are discussed. Questionnaire layout is addressed and also the wording of individual questions as both of these will affect response rates and how people interpret questions. Wording can be difficult and may take a few drafts to get right. Several examples are given to demonstrate the concepts. The key messages in this review are: spend time planning and make the questionnaire brief, easy and safe. Issues such as response rates, types of questions, how to test for reliability and validity; and how to analyse the data will be covered in a further review for The Radiographer.

Development and pilot of an international survey: ‘Radiation Therapists and Psychosocial Support’

“…An online survey was selected as an effective method to explore RT values, skills, training and knowledge regarding psychosocial support for patients undergoing radiation therapy. An online survey is an inexpensive, wide reaching approach, which enables collation and analysis of large volumes of data in a short timeframe . Other multicentre surveys targeting RTs have yielded encouraging response rates in Australia, NZ and Canada, of 37–41%, 48% and 21–36% respectively.…”

“…An online survey is an inexpensive, wide reaching approach, which enables collation and analysis of large volumes of data in a short timeframe. 22 Other multicentre surveys targeting RTs have yielded encouraging response rates in Australia, NZ and Canada, of 37-41%, 48% and 21-36% respectively 7,12,14,[30][31][32][33][34] .…”

“…This survey instrument is potentially applicable in multiple radiation oncology departments globally, to assess RT values, skills, training and knowledge specific to detecting and managing patient anxiety. This instrument provides a contribution to the field of radiation therapy that may be used by others in future research, with potential to improve the delivery of psychosocial care and reduce the number of patients with unmet psychosocial needs.…”

“…An online survey was designed using Qualtrics survey software. Use of an online data collection strategy was selected as it is inexpensive, wide reaching and facilitates complete and accurate data collection . Survey construction was influenced by published guidelines and tailored to an RT population …”

“…Use of an online data collection strategy was selected as it is inexpensive, wide reaching and facilitates complete and accurate data collection. 22 Survey construction was influenced by published guidelines and tailored to an RT population. [22][23][24] Ethics Ethics approval was granted by the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (project number 2016/227).…”