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Low survey response rate due to lack of time/organisation

Waiting to send a questionnaire may not work and you may not get the feedback. Either ask for the questionnaire to be completed when the face to face intervention is happening or build in a review meeting a short period of time after the intervention to follow up. The questionnaire can be completed then.

Try to add in an extra period of time i.e. half an hour over a lunchtime to obtain feedback.

Lack of engagement with data collection method due to fear of what will happen with responses

It's important to be transparent about what you will do with their data. It's not surprising they may be sceptical but if you establish a good rapport, explain the purposes are for improving the system and not evaluating them as an individual, and just encourage them to be open and honest, that can really help.

Relying on self-report data

There's always the risk that the trainees won't be able to objectively assess their own skills and knowledge. Try to explain the purpose behind the measure and ensure individuals completing it know it is important to answer as truthfully or accurately as possible. Combining self-report data with other objective data sources is also helpful.

Difficulties with accurate record keeping

It can be helpful to have two facilitators when running focus groups; one to concentrate on the discussion and one to make notes.

Linking together lots of different data sources

Linking together data sets can be a challenge. Try to make sure you have a unique ID for each respondent. However setting up unique IDs is challenging if you want to maintain the anonymity of respondents. You can ask respondents to create a 'code' e.g. their month of birth, last initial and postcode numbers for example.