FAQs
Why should we participate?
Who should participate?
How will the survey be performed?
What type of information will we receive?
How was the national benchmark data collected?
What is the value of the information?
What is the timeline and when will the results be available?
How is nurse/hospital anonymity protected?
How do we access the survey to participate?
What is the cost?
How will I be billed?
Why should we participate?
The patient experience begins with the nurse. Yet, realities such as staffing shortages and burnout, high patient acuity, shortened length of stay and the complexities of patient needs are expending increasingly limited nursing resources on non-nursing support services activities. When nursing becomes distracted by these activities, there can be an overall negative impact on patients. By understanding nursing’s perception of support services’ performance and the impact that specific actions and behaviors have on nursing satisfaction and overall collaboration among departments, both work units have an opportunity to come together to positively impact patient care and the work environment.
Measuring nursing satisfaction with support services areas can be an invaluable piece of information to help monitor the ability to provide high quality patient care in your organization. The results of this survey can be used to identify areas of opportunity, as well as strength that will provide guidance to building a more collaborative work environment.
Who should participate?
Hospitals that want to:
- Positively impact patient care
- Build a more collaborative work environment
- Assimilate new nursing or support service leadership
- Pursue Magnet status
- Establish baselines to measure future performance and set improvement targets
How will the survey be performed?
This survey will be accessible through an online survey link administered by Intelliscan, Inc., an independent research organization. The October 2012 survey period will be open from October 1-30, 2012. Participating nurses at the enrolled hospital can complete the online survey at any time during the survey timeframe. Participants will be asked to complete a survey on three of the eight support service areas. The service area that will display for each respondent will be randomly selected to ensure that all eight service areas are evaluated. Limiting the responses to three of the eight areas for each participant reduces survey fatigue. The participating hospital will receive reports for all eight service areas based on the total responses.
What type of information will we receive?
Participating hospitals will receive nine (9) customized reports that can be compared against a provided national benchmark report. Reports include:
- Individual satisfaction reports for eight support service areas (food and nutrition, environmental services, facility maintenance, clinical engineering, laundry and linen, security, central supply and patient transport)
- Summary/rollup report of all service areas
Using these reports, each hospital will be able to compare their scores for importance, performance and collaboration against a national benchmark as a frame of reference.
How was the national benchmark data collected?
To establish national benchmark data for this survey, ARAMARK Healthcare, who assisted in the development of the NS3 survey tool, distributed the survey online to nearly 40,000 nurses during the spring/summer of 2008. A total of 7,472 nurses from 65 hospitals across the U.S. as well as several Canadian facilities participated in the study, representing a 19 percent response rate.
What is the value of the information?
Nurse satisfaction can be an invaluable piece of information to help monitor the ability of nursing and support services to provide high quality service in their organizations. Studies have defined the relationship of nurse satisfaction and the degree to which nursing performs non-clinical tasks. These studies found the more nursing performs non-nursing tasks, the greater their dissatisfaction with their job.
It is suggested that nursing use this satisfaction study as an opportunity to work closely with support services departments, identify areas of opportunity and strength alike and work to build a collaborative work environment.
Registration for this survey period must be completed by September 15, 2012.
The basic steps of the survey enrollment and administration include:
- Register online at www.aone.org.
- The point of contact (POC) designated by the hospital will receive an e-mail confirmation from Intelliscan, Inc., the research company administrating the survey. The POC will be asked to provide key hospital demographics (i.e. number of nursing FTEs, FTEs per shift, Magnet status).
- The POC will receive—via e-mail—a communications kit that will include sample emails and other vehicles to promote the study and encourage nurse participation. The POC will also receive a link to the online survey with user information.
- During the survey window, the POC will receive regular email updates from Intelliscan, Inc. with information about the number of responses to gauge participation levels through the survey period.
What is the survey timeline and when will the results be available?
The October 2012 survey window will be open from October 1-31, 2012. Participating hospitals will receive their customized survey reports and national benchmark comparison within four to six weeks after the survey closes.
How is nurse anonymity protected?
Participating nurses will not be asked for any information that can be used to identify them. Individual responses will be sent directly to Intelliscan, Inc. No individual data will be discussed or reported at any time.
How do we access the survey to participate?
After registration, participating hospitals will receive a survey link. Participants will just click on the link to enter the survey.
What is the cost?
The cost to participate in the NS3 survey is $2,000, which includes a turnkey participation toolkit, nine (9) customized reports and a national comparative benchmark.
How will I be billed?
After registration, participating hospitals will receive an invoice that will be payable with 30 days.
