Staff surveys

Surveys often involve questionnaires that are completed by facility staff. Surveys can be used in place of any on-site audits however, this precludes your gaining first-hand Imowledge of the PSM systems and leaves you unable to vouch for the accuracy of the information gathered. 

Prevention Magazine staff. Survey of Consumer Use of Dietary Supplements, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA, 1999. 

Bootham Park Hospital (2002). Annual Staff Survey of York Health Services NHS Trust. York, UK Occupational Health Department, Bootham Park Hospital. 

The District of Columbia obtained a permit from the National Park Service and the District s staff surveyed this area with a Fisher Gemini-3 Radio Frequency Transmitter-Receiver Metal Detector. They repeated the survey using a Schonstedt GA-72 Cd Magnetic Locator. Thus far, the District has located 13 anomalies that are compatible with munitions burials. Additionally, the EPA s expert in UXO recovery has confirmed the compatibility of several of the District s anomalies with deep munitions burials and has located a 14th anomaly. The anomalies are marked with tape and are plotted on the attached map (deleted for purposes of this book). In addition, the District of Columbia looked at the utility maps to eliminate the possibility that a utility line may account for the anomalies. One such map bears the strange comment, NOTE FOR NONINTERFERENCE BETWEEN NEW CHAIN BRIDGE AND U.R.DC., SEE E.D. 236905-1. ... 

A simple but enlightening technique for estimating SMS effectiveness is the employment of a staff survey, especially where this is used to supplement other data. The advantage of a survey is that it provides an opportunity to gather information at a granular level. For example, one could ask users to score questions such as ... 

Many examples of best practice come from new web-based initiatives. There are several notable projects, the first of which is fi-om the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife service (2007). This web-based database of floral and faunal records from the region draws together more than one-million recorded sightings, using data from historical reports, the Department of Environment and Conservation staff, survey data from major projects, consultants and the general public. The user can also generate distributions for the species, as well as a number of other features. 

American Water Works Association, Survey of Operating Datafor Water Works in 1960, AWWA staff report. New York, 1964. 

Despite their limitations, surveys can play a role in assessing PSM program status. Surveys can be used in advance of each site visit to gather information that you subsequently review with facility staff and verify during a visit. This may reduce the time needed on-site. 

One way you can help minimize such bias is to involve more facility personnel in a PSM survey than would likely participate in a PSM audit. Broad distribution of a questionnaire among facility staff does not appreciably add to the level of effort required of the PSM team, and may help provide a more balanced perspective. 

If a survey is administered throughout a facility, it is critical that it be understood and believed to be confidential staff should be encouraged to forward their responses directly to the PSM team and signatures should be optional. 

Survey questionnaires are completed by local staff. Each facility may interpret the questions differently if their intent is not clearly specified along with the question. You could include intent statements to clarify the questions, since you will have no basis for understanding differences between locations. You will not be able to easily check their accuracy. —Surveys to gather advance information on the facility, their organization, and general information on PSM and ESH management can save on-site time of your assessment team. 

You may be able to collect a great deal of useful input via personal conversations about the new systems. This avoids the more costly survey approach, but is also more likely to be biased. Generally, any voluntary opinions are more likely to be negative human nature is such that complaints are more common than praise. (When did you last thank your bank for improved service When did you last complain to them ). Ideally, you should set aside a period when you simply spend time meeting with other staff and discussing the new systems. If you are given, or hear of, complaints informally, check them out by asking others their opinion. 

Insurance companies employ staff that have been trained in crime-prevention techniques, and when theft insurance is provided/requested for commercial premises, it is normal practice for the insurer to carry out a security survey of the premises to prepare a report for the underwriters. The report is based on the surveyor s assessment of the risk, which will consider the following main factors ... 

See "Keys to Soil Taxonomy" (Soil Survey Staff, 1998) for a complete listing. 

Soil Survey Staff. Soil taxonomy, a basic system of soil classification for making and interpreting soil surveys. U.S. Dept. Agric. Handbook, 436. Washington D.C. Soil Conserv Serv, 1975. 

To permit inferences about the target population, probability sampling methods will be used in designing the survey. Sample collection and interview procedures being considered include face to face interviews using field study staff, random digit dialing telephone interviews or some combination of these procedures. The face to face procedure is the most likely method at the present time and will be described here to illustrate the manner in which the probability sample will be selected. 

This job is unlike any job you ve ever had, in or out of government. There is little time to get acquainted. The morning after you arrive, you make a tour in search of a staff that is scattered at various points throughout the ramshackle Palace. Like Belle Mayer and Drexel Sprecher, everyone is on edge from the frustration of trying to do too much with too little, and from the fear that what they have done will get nowhere in the end. You delegate much of the personnel work to Drexel Sprecher for the next week. Then you begin to survey the evidence. 

Adcock, S.W. 2009a. The Canadian Database of Geochemical Surveys Analytical data for till surveys carried out across Canada by GSC staff. Geological Survey of Canada Open File 5935, 1 DVD. 

Since 1997, staff members of the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey (WVGES) have been building a geochemical database for the State s bedrock units to be used for the dual purposes of mineral exploration and environmental quality assessment. The results of these efforts were first released to the public in 2001 when the number of sample analyses in the database reached approximately five hundred (McDowell,... 

We surveyed all the staff in the building to find out the nature and scope of health problems people were experiencing. Out of five hundred and fifty surveys circulated, four hundred and twenty-six were completed and returned. The results were phenomenal. Ninety-one percent of the respondents were experiencing classic sick building symptoms while they were in the building. But we were only surveying for immediate and short-term effects. What we didn t know was how many people who worked in the building since it opened in 1976 have since died of various cancers. I now know of at least thirty. 

Soil Survey Staff. Soil Taxonomy A Basic System of Soil Classification for Making and Interpreting Soil Surveys. Washington, DC U.S. Government Printing Office 1975. 

We thank our authors for surveying the literature of the several aspects of medicinal chemistry. We also offer our thanks both to owners of copyright material who have given their permission for it to be reproduced in this volume, and to the staff of our publishers for their invaluable help and encouragement. 

---