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Challenges In Conducting Online Survey Research Of The Relationship Between Unit-Level Perceived Team Trustworthiness And Clinical And Operational Outcomes, Nancy Ballard, Lynn Varagona, Rob Stilson, Kimberly Knotts, Joan Sacerio

Faculty and Research Publications

When conducting online survey research, obtaining an adequate response rate in order to have meaningful, reliable data can be challenging. In our study examining hospital unit-level data, a 40% response rate was needed to adequately reflect the degree to which unit staff perceived one another as trustworthy. In addition, approximately 150 units were needed to analyze the relationship between perceived trustworthiness and selected operational and quality outcomes.

In spite of following best practices for survey research (e.g., careful communication planning, short survey length) in a multi-hospital study system, most of the units’ response rates were inadequate to include the units …