You are invited to complete an OAA survey

Access to the OAA survey system has been a membership benefit for many years. Surveys have been presented at national and international meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals, providing a valuable resource to the membership to improve clinical practice and quality of care.

If a change in practice is being contemplated, then surveys are often used to gain opinions and a snapshot of practice, in a time-efficient manner.

OAA Surveys Subcommittee

OAA membership surveys were first suggested in 1990. Postal surveys were introduced in 1997, with the Surveys Subcommittee fully established in 2000. The original online survey system underwent an upgrade in 2015. During COVID, survey activities were suspended, and after a brief resumption, the subcommittee stopped accepting new surveys in December 2021, in preparation for another upgrade to a brand-new system.

Figure 1: Between 2000 – 2019 around 500 surveys were reviewed, of which 209 (38%) were approved¹

How useful are these surveys?

Yentis et al published an article looking at the outcomes and usefulness of OAA surveys between 1998 and 2012.² They found that most surveys were published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at OAA meetings, or both, with some receiving citations in other peer-reviewed articles (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Status of OAA surveys on completion.
*Publication in any indexed journal including IJOA

As evidenced by the recent OAA/DAS airway guidelines, findings from a survey can be instrumental in formulating recommendations for the wider group.³4
 
At the time of Yentis et al’s publications, they found a declining response rate, although still above 60%, which was considered acceptable. By 2019, however, the response rate had dropped to an average of 29%.5

Why had the response rate dropped so dramatically? Firstly, we assumed people were suffering from ‘survey fatigue’. We have ever-increasing amounts of paperwork to deal with, taking time away from answering additional and (perceived) less essential requests. There was also a perception that the previous system was not as fit for purpose as we thought! Members were frustrated at having to use a separate email and unique password to enter each survey. The survey system was not conducive to allowing surveys to be viewed and completed quickly on a mobile device, nor were members able to partially complete a survey and come back to finish it later. We also discovered that the system was not sending the surveys to all intended recipients, giving a falsely low response rate.

The new survey system

As part of the OAA digital project to create a new and improved website, it was felt that this would be an ideal opportunity to improve the survey system. We have harnessed the functionality of SurveyMonkey to simplify and streamline the survey creation process, in combination with the new membership database to distribute surveys to members.

Authors can use their My OAA portal to submit survey proposals and check their progress through the OAA review process. The first survey was released on the new system in early 2024 and we already have others going through the review process.

I would like to undertake an OAA Survey; how do I go about it?

Choose a topic that interests you, and ask yourself:

1. Is it relevant? Will the survey produce meaningful data, resulting in real benefit?
2. Has your topic been surveyed recently (previous surveys accessible from OAA website)?
3. Is it broadly applicable? Will it change or improve practice in many units?
4. Does the survey have real educational value for others?

If you can answer yes to all these questions, then register with the online system and create your survey. Decide who your target audience will be; lead obstetric anaesthetist for the hospital, all OAA members, trainees? Write a concise, unambiguous introduction that states your objectives and aims clearly. Try and limit the number of questions to around 10 and make sure that the information you are asking is both easily accessible and avoids ‘hypothetical’ questions (results are difficult to interpret). Closed ‘choice’ questions are easier to analyse.

Consider the time and effort demanded from members to complete your survey. Test your survey on friends and colleagues to check the design and flow, and to identify any glitches. Finally, if the survey is being submitted by an in-training member, there must be a full member (a consultant supervisor) as a co-author.
 
There is a small administration fee to pay on submission of the survey and a deposit to be paid before your accepted survey goes live. This deposit is fully refundable when your survey report is received. Detailed information on how to design and submit a survey is available on the OAA website.
 
High-quality, OAA-approved surveys remain a valuable resource that can change practice for the better, and we would encourage you not only to submit them but to fill them in when you receive them. We as the surveys subcommittee are always keen to have your input into how we can improve the system and process so don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any thoughts or suggestions.

References

1.     OAA Surveys Subcommittee reports for OAA Committee meetings 2000-2020

2.     EJ Robson, JP Campbell, SM Yentis. The Value of surveys in obstetric anaesthesia. IJOA 2015; 24:46-52

3.     Joseph A, Dedhia J, Mushambi M. National survey of obstetric airway equipment and guidelines. IJOA 2009; 18:S40

4.     OAA DAS obstetric airway guidelines 2015

5.     OAA Survey System data accessed 28.05.20