Step 5: Collect Data
At a Glance
Who are the performers and what are they trying to achieve?
In Step 5A, you will manage the implementation of your data collection plan.
Tools to Help
Who is Involved
The M&E Specialist should complete the work with the Facilitator’s support.
Output
Move on to the next step when you have completed the data collection process and all of the data are ready for analysis.
Important!
Whether you are using the High M&E Resource Setting or Adapted Case Study method, please ensure that the health workers you are gathering data from remain ANONYMOUS. It is critical that your sources of data feel they can be honest and frank about their successes and challenges without fearing for potential repercussions. You can assign numbers and/or letters as identifiers for each health worker that is surveyed or interviewed throughout the process.
1 How to Get Started
Use the Data Collection Planning Worksheet to identify all Administrators in charge of collecting data for the needs analysis and ask each one to create a version of the Data Collection Tracking Tool, which is really an expanded version of the Planning Worksheet.
2 Next
As data are collected, ensure appropriate security of print materials and back-up of electronic files are in place to avoid losses. If the team is electronically entering information from print questionnaires, ensure that spot checks are conducted to support data quality.
3 Then
Once the data been submitted and prepared for analysis, it’s a good idea to do one last validation to ensure you have the number of records expected... in the format you expect them to conduct your analysis.
4 Finally
Be sure that all individuals who have coordinated activities, provided information or provided access to data sources have been thanked for their time and effort in supporting the needs analysis investigation.
At a Glance
How will we capture their responses?
In Step 5B, you will manage the implementation of your data collection plan.
Tools to Help
Who is Involved
The Facilitator of the needs analysis should plan the work, while trained interviewers gather the data.
Output
Move on to the next step when you have identified Phase 2 cases, completed all of the Phase 2 interviews and are ready for analysis.
Important!
Whether you are using the High M&E Resource Setting or Adapted Case Study method, please ensure that the health workers you are gathering data from remain ANONYMOUS. It is critical that your sources of data feel they can be honest and frank about their successes and challenges without fearing for potential repercussions. You can assign numbers and/or letters as identifiers for each health worker that is surveyed or interviewed throughout the process.
1 How to Get Started
Begin by ensuring that all Phase 1 data are summarized in a single location—ideally a spreadsheet that lists questions in columns and individuals in rows. If some data was collected on paper, be sure you have resources and opportunity to key that data into a central spreadsheet. Consider both the direction and the scale of questions as you key in data. For example, when entering data for a question such as “how often do you encounter problems in delivering services” among questions such as “how often do you have the resources needed to deliver services” ensure you reverse the scale as you enter the response electronically so all positive answers are reflected by high numbers. Scales can be automatically adjusted on most online questionnaires. Conduct a simple review and calculate the arithmetic averages (or mean) of responses of averages across each of the Phase 1 questions to get a general “pulse” of the population as a whole.
2 Next
Focus on those at the extreme ends of the scale across all questions. For example, how many individuals were overall the most positive about their work in terms of expectations, ability, opportunity and motivation, and which were least positive across the same factors? These will make up your pool of success and non-success cases. Use the Phase 2 Case Selection Worksheet as a guide, and from these two pools, select the initial 8 to 10 individuals for Phase 2 data collection. If the success and non-success pools are very large, you can use a random number generator to select individuals. If the pools are small enough you can write the names on paper and draw from a hat to decide which to include. Be sure to consider key demographic issues such as gender, ethnicity or location, and deliberately choose among those strata if necessary.
3 Then
Train interviewers on the Phase 2 Interview Protocol (from Step 4B) and the use of the Interview Data Capture Tool, and have them conduct interviews with the chosen cases from each pool.
4 Finally
Consolidate the interview data and look for consistency of themes among success and non-success cases. If themes are generally consistent in the four essential factors (expectation, ability, opportunity, motivation) across those interviewed in each pool, you can begin to summarize. If themes are very different, you may choose to include a few more cases to ensure you have uncovered all of the most pressing issues.
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