Podcast | Practice of Medicine | July 8, 2021

Best Practices for Survey Use in Medical Education: How to Design, Refine, and Administer High-Quality Surveys

Surveys are commonly used in medical education, yet educators and researchers often fail to follow best practices for survey design, administration, and reporting in manuscripts. In this podcast, Drs. Tanya Nikiforova and Emmanuelle Yecies discuss the evidence and expert-supported best practices for designing and reporting on surveys in medical education research, a topic they and coauthors Drs. Andrea Carter and Carla L. Spagnoletti address in an upcoming article in the Southern Medical Journal.

Earn CME Credit

Tanya Nikiforova, MD, MS, is Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Nikiforova completed internal medicine residency training at the University of Pittsburgh in 2015 and subsequently received a Master’s Degree in Medical Education through the Academic Clinician Educator Scholars Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh in 2018. She joined faculty as a clinician educator in the Division of General Internal Medicine in 2018 where she practices inpatient and outpatient general internal medicine, and serves as Associate Program Director for Ambulatory Education in the Internal Medicine Residency Program.

Emmanuelle Yecies, MD MS, is a staff physician and medical director for the Women’s Health Clinic at VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. Dr. Yecies graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2014 before completing a residency in Internal Medicine at UPMC. She went on to complete a three-year fellowship in Women’s Health and General Internal Medicine through the University of Pittsburgh and VA Pittsburgh, during which she obtained a Master’s Degree in Medical Education. She is now a practicing clinician at VA Palo Alto where she spends her time caring for women Veterans, developing educational materials, and teaching about Women’s Health. 

References and Resources

  1. Nikiforova T, Carter A, Yecies E, et al. Best Practices for Survey Use in Medical Education: How to Design, Refine, and Administer High-Quality Surveys. South Med J 2021; In Press.
  2. Palla B, Callahan N, Miloro M. One Survey to Rule Them All. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020;10(20)31215-5. 
  3. Artino AR Jr, Durning SJ, Sklar DP. Guidelines for Reporting Survey-Based Research Submitted to Academic Medicine. Acad Med. 2018;93(3):337-340.
  4. Phillips AW, Friedman BT, Utrankar A, et al. Surveys of Health professions Trainees: Prevalence, Response Rates, and Predictive Factors to Guide Researchers. Academic Medicine. 2017; 92(2):222-8.
  5. Christof VM. Improving Web Survey Efficiency: The Impact of an Extra Reminder and Reminder Content on Web Survey Response. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. 2017;20(4):317-327.
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