Supporting Harm Reduction Programs

PiTS Toolkit: Design Phase

Objectives

In Phase 2, syringe services programs (SSPs) aiming to conduct a Point in Time Survey (PiTS) will: 

  • Learn the basic elements of survey design 
  • Understand how to write survey questions to minimize bias
  • Prioritize survey questions to meet survey objectives
  • Learn how to pilot a survey
  • Identify survey methods that will support survey analysis

Contents

To help you design your PiTS, this page contains an overview of survey design, question prioritization, resources to conduct survey testing, and survey programming and formatting.

Survey Design Good Practices

In this presentation, we’ll dive into some good practices for designing your survey, designing your survey questions, and pilot testing your survey.  

Step 1: Prioritize Your Survey Questions

There are a lot of things you might be curious to know about your program participants. However, it is important for SSPs to only include questions in their survey that are tied in with their survey objectives, or what they specifically need to ask in order to achieve what they set out to do. In this resource, we provide example questions according to their priority level. Some of these questions are included in the final Example Point in Time Survey, and some are not – take a look to find out why.

PiTS-Question-Prioritization-MatrixDownload

Step 2: Test Your Draft Survey

Pilot testing is a process of testing out your survey and data collection process to ensure they function before you start to collect real data. By testing it you’re trying to work out any problems or kinks before you do your real data collection by getting the survey or process in front of as many people as you can.

Pilot testing is an iterative process, meaning that most likely you’ll test, make revisions, and test again until the survey and/or data collection system is working reliably. Sufficient pilot testing ensures the data you are collecting will meet your needs and that your survey and data collection process are functional and sustainable for your staff and participants. 

You’ll want to start by pilot testing your survey questions. Getting feedback on your survey questions allows you to make sure your questions and answers make sense across a variety of outlooks, education levels, and life experiences. In this resource, we show how a draft survey question might be revised using pilot testing.

Pilot-Testing-Survey-QuestionsDownload

Next, you’ll test your entire survey and the survey process to identify issues with flow, aid in the development of your interviewer training guide, and help prevent errors. This resource includes a note-taking template for interviewers to record their experiences administering the survey, and the respondent’s experiences answering the survey questions.

Pilot-Testing-a-PiTS-InstructionsDownload
Pilot-Testing-a-PiTS-TemplateDownload

Step 3: Formatting Your Survey

Once you have a final survey tool, you will want to format it for implementation. Most programs will offer their survey both on paper and digitally, depending on the setting. Some programs may aim to collect all surveys digitally but still have a paper survey formatted and printed in the event a laptop isn’t charged or available, or the Internet connection is lost. Below is guidance for programming your online survey and matching your online and paper surveys.

Programming Your Point in Time Survey Using REDCap

SSPs implementing PiTs should consider the pros and cons of various platforms for entering their survey data. SSPs who choose to utilize REDCap may be new to the software. This tutorial will provide an overview of how to program a survey in REDCap once you’ve created a project.

Screen share demonstration of programming a REDCap survey

Matching Online and Paper Surveys

You and your team may choose to utilize both paper and digital data collection (i.e., collecting data directly on a tablet, smartphone, PC, or other device) when implementing your PiTS. This is a good option for many teams – those with outreach workers doing PiTS in the field, those with high service volume, those with unreliable internet connection, etc. When formatting for paper, consider readability. Use concise wording, use bold letters, italic fonts, and highlight important words as needed to make sure important information can be found quickly. This resource includes the paper version of the Example Point in Time Survey we will be using throughout the rest of the Toolkit to demonstrate various data monitoring and analysis skills.

Match-Paper-to-Online-SurveyDownload