Survey Research

I am currently taking Development and Evaluation of Health Programs, and for that class my group is working with the Guthrie Clinic to develop a survey evaluating the attitudes of health professionals toward preventative screenings. Our aim is to analyze the opinions of physicians on the clinic's guidelines for screenings, as well as any perceived barriers for administering the screenings.
The survey is composed of 35 questions that are broken up into sections. The first section deals with the clinic's guidelines. The second section inquires about any perceived barriers to preventative screenings. The third questions how the physician personally complies with the guidelines. The following section includes sentences that the subjects rate and include any additional comments, and the last section questions the demographics of the sample. Each section has a Likert scale format, except for the last two, which are short answer and multiple choice, respectively. The survey will be e-mailed to every Guthrie health care professional.
We opted to use a survey to acquire our data for a variety of reasons. First, the research committee at Guthrie clinic recommended we use a survey. Second, it is the most convenient. We don't need to gather physicians or interrupt anyone's busy schedule too much. We also figure more people would be willing to sit for a few minutes and do a survey while checking their e-mail than go out of their way to participate. Third, it was the best way to reach the most people. Lastly, our data is quantitative, so a survey with multiple choice or rating questions are the easiest to interpret and analyze.
Actually conducting the survey is interesting because it helps me better understand what is being learned in this class, but I also can apply what I learned to it.