Conducting a large survey of critical care nurses in Canada: lessons learnt

Survey research provides information regarding clinician opinion, adherence to evidence-based recommendations and practice variation. Yet, the conduct of large surveys can present numerous challenges. Practical challenges such as establishing a sampling strategy consistent with a population's distribution may be anticipated. Additional unanticipated challenges may emerge during survey implementation that require troubleshooting and result in additional costs.

Our objective is to inform nurse clinicians and researchers of our experiences in the conduct of a large, Canadian survey of critical care nurses. Specifically, we describe administrative, financial and logistical considerations and challenges.

Administrative challenges included negotiation with each provincial/territorial nursing association to facilitate survey distribution. Financial considerations included anticipated and unanticipated costs such as postage, nursing association fees, translation, printing, shipping and research assistant time. Logistical challenges included systematizing survey mail outs and tracking, and translating survey materials and responses for bilingual provinces.

Conduct of this large national survey required considerable financial resources, time, energy and coordination. We anticipate greater understanding of the work and cost associated with planning and implementing such surveys may inform researchers as well as critical care nurses considering responding to future survey invitations.