Surveys

Please note: Information will be updated when new survey system launches.

Any individual or group (one of whom must be an OAA member) wishing to have an audit project carried out under through the OAA should first register on this website (or login if already registered).

Once registered, you will be able to create your survey proposal and submit it to the OAA survey committee for consideration.

You will be asked to confirm that your survey proposal:

• Does not duplicate any previous OAA Surveys
• Is relevant to obstetric anaesthesia
• Has no commercial advertising in the surveys

Surveys will be assessed every three months by the survey committee. The deadline for submissions are:

• 31 March
• 30 June
• 30 September
• 31 December

After these deadlines all surveys submitted in the previous three months will be peer reviewed by the OAA's survey committee. Comments, suggestions for improvement, rejection etc are collated by the chair and authors should receive a reply within four weeks.

The most important and relevant surveys submitted will be selected to go forward to the revision and reassessment stage. Once final approval has been given, authors will be sent an OAA 'seal of approval' and a survey number.

A deposit of £150 is made by the OAA for use of the online system which goes towards maintenance and costs (including monitoring, author assistance, loading data for participants etc). This amount will be refunded in full once the OAA receives a full report on the completed survey.

Please note: Information will be updated when new survey system launches.

The survey system will require input of:

• A covering letter to accompany the survey. The letter needs to explain whether this is a survey of individual practice or whether lead clinicians are being asked to comment on the practice of their unit
• Background information (including references) as to why the survey is thought to be necessary

The surveys committee considers each survey based on a number of areas:

• Relevance - will it produce meaningful data?
• Repeated data - a very similar survey must not have been submitted within the last two years
• Applicability - will it change or improve practice?
• Educational value
• How well the survey is constructed

To encourage response, it is important that the survey:

• Has a consultant as a co-author
• Is as concise as possible (10 questions being the optimum but no more than 15)
• Has unambiguous questions

The response rate for the various groups can be expected to be as shown below (taken from surveys undertaken from 2016):

Please note: Information will be updated when new survey system launches.

Once approval has been given you will be given a survey number and an invoice for £150 will be emailed to the survey originator.

Circulation will normally follow the listed order at approximately three-week intervals to avoid overlap and to encourage a good response. The order may vary if any survey is not ready or if payment has not been received.

Please note: Information will be updated when new survey system launches.

A charge of £150 is made by the OAA for use of the online system which goes towards maintenance and costs incurred (including monitoring, author assistance, loading data for participants etc). This amount will be refunded in full once the OAA receives a full report on the completed survey.

Payment must be made before a survey can be launched.

Please note: Information will be updated when new survey system launches.

Once a survey is activated:

• A time-limit will be set for completion of the survey by participants (normally 3 months)
• Up to two reminders will be sent to non-responders
• Responses can be viewed by the originator at any stage via the survey system
• The originator will be notified when the survey has closed

Please note: Information will be updated when new survey system launches.

Once your survey is complete, you need to do the following:

• Send the sub-committee a summary of the results (this should not interfere with publication in a journal)
• Inform the OAA of details of any acceptance as a free paper abstract or other publication. These will be noted and, if possible, linked on the website survey list

Authors are also invited to offer pdf files of displayed meeting posters resulting from the survey.