A Quick Guide to Survey Creation

1.     First you should address these questions when conducting survey research:

• What do you want to know?
• Why do you need the data?
• Who do you need to survey?
• How will you get the data?
• What resources do you need?

2. Next you need to be aware of the kinds of data that can be collected through survey research:

• Demographics

·       Knowledge

• Attitudes
• Behaviors
• Opinions
• Evaluation
• Needs assessment

 3. Then you should identify the levels of measurement of the data you plan to collect:

• Nominal – names categories (e.g., gender:  male or female)
• Ordinal – rank orders categories (e.g., patient acuity level:  critical, poor, fair, good))
• Interval – continuous scale with no real zero (e.g., Anxiety score of 20 to 100)
• Ratio– continuous scale with real zero (e.g., yrs. of nursing experience 0 to 40)

 4.  Next decide on what approaches you plan to use in designing the survey instrument:
Open-ended Question

• What is your age?  ______ years

Closed-ended Question

• Mutually Exclusive Options

Gender:           ___      Male  ___      Female

• Collectively Exhaustive Options

                        What was your basic nursing education program?
                        ____    diploma
                        ____    associate degree (ADN)
                        ____    baccalaureate degree (BSN)
                        ____    generic master’s degree (MSN)
                        ____    nurse doctorate degree (ND)

• Neither Mutually Exclusive Nor Collectively Exhaustive Options

                        Which journals do you read on a regular basis? (check all that apply)
                        ____    AJN
                        ____    Heart & Lung
                        ____    Nursing Research
                        ____    Other (specify ____________________)
Checklists
1.  Nursing is a strong profession.                                ____ Yes            ____ No
2.  Nursing is a highly-valued profession.                    ____ Yes            ____ No
3.  Nursing actions are dependent on doctors’ orders.  ____ Yes            ____ No
Likert Scales
 
Statement
Strongly Agree
Agree
Not Sure
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Examples
1.  The nursing profession is strong.
 
2.  Nursing is a highly-valued profession.
 
3.  Nursing actions are dependent on doctors’ orders
 
  
Semantic Differential Scales
                                    NURSING
Strong             :___:___:___:___:___:___:___:Weak
Highly Valued :___:___:___:___:___:___:___:Under-Valued
Dependent            :___:___:___:___:___:___:___:Independent
Visual Analog Scales
            I believe that the nursing profession is:
Weak ____________________________________________ Strong
 
5.Remember to always measure your variables at the highest level of measurement possible. You can always transform interval and ratio levels of measurement to nominal and ordinal levels of measurement but you cannot transform nominal and ordinal levels of measurement into interval and ratio levels of measurement.