Note from the ACDIS Editor: Behind the scenes of the 2021 Industry Survey

CDI Strategies - Volume 15, Issue 29

by Carolyn Riel

All throughout school, math and science were my top subjects. Believe it or not, I took advanced placement (AP) chemistry, AP physics, and AP calculus in high school. Why would I then choose a degree in English and pursue a career as a writer? Life is too short to only chase goals based on your talents, and not also your passions.

Still, I enjoy crunching numbers. Punching my shopping receipts into my bookkeeping platform is one of the highlights of my month. Seriously. Learning surprising statistics always gives me a little rush. But after a while, numbers get dull to me. I love them for a short period of time, but when I’m staring at data for too long all the number melt together into one black puddle in my head and I feel like I’m back in high school memorizing pi again (3.1415926 is as much as I remember now).

But writing always brings me joy, whether it’s a creative piece of poetry for myself, weekly CDI Strategies newsletter, a Journal article, short story, or user manual for an espresso machine (that last one was in a past career). Writing hasn’t really ever come easy to me, not the same way numbers have. In math, there’s a right and a wrong answer. That’s it. There’s a set way to work through a problem; you learn how to do it, commit it to memory, and then solve. At the end, you always will either be right or wrong.

But with writing, there is no right or wrong answer at the end or a formula for solving the equations. You have 26 letters, approximately 171,146 words (in the English language), and a point you want to get across. How you get there is up to you to figure out. But still, something about that level of creativity has always appealed to me. So many words, so many letters, and every single choice you make for a different one can entirely change the meaning of what you’re writing.

And that’s not even including punctuation. I always love the example of “let’s eat, grandma,” versus “let’s eat grandma.”

It isn’t often I have the chance to put together my talent and my passion—numbers and writing. But the annual CDI Week Industry Survey Report allows me to do just that.

I highly underestimated the amount of time it would take me to work on this report. It’s numbers and writing, two of my favorite things. How long could it take? I figured allotting myself three full days to writing should be good.

It was not good. Not good at all. I can still remember with crystal clarity staying up until 3 a.m., last year to work on the report. Lesson learned.

If I didn’t know how much analysis goes into the Industry Survey report, I’m guessing not a lot of other people know what happens behind the scenes either. It goes a little something like this…

In late May, the survey advisor is chosen. This is the subject matter expert to work with me on the overall report. When they survey closes, I send them the raw data along with a list of questions for them to answer.

Early June, the survey itself is developed. The ACDIS leadership team comes up with the five topics for the year and which questions will be in each section. We’ll all review the survey a couple of times, and then actually create it in SurveyMonkey. Once the survey is finalized, about mid-June, we open it up to all of you and send out updates.

We leave the survey open for about a month, and in mid-July close it. This year, we received just shy of 950 responses. At this point, the ACDIS editor (me) goes through all of the data and  compiles the questions for the advisor to review and comment.

Then, I get to writing.

I go through each survey question, one by one, and analyze the data. What percentage of respondents entered a certain answer? Are there any surprising points? How many people who answered one question also answered another? How have responses to this question changed year-over-year? (Yes, I compare all data with years past). As I’m writing all of the data points into a not-yet-well-polished report, I also create spreadsheets with all of the data for each question or data point. This is how our creative team makes all of the beautiful graphs you see in the final report.

By the end of July, I hand the report off to Linnea Archibald, ACDIS associate editorial director, for her review and she hands it off to our copy editor to look through as well.

After editing, the report goes to production in early August, where they put all of the raw information into the beautiful layout that becomes our final product. We give it a final review and then send it out to all of you during CDI Week.

So, while CDI Week isn’t until the second full week of September, we begin working on all its various offerings, including the Industry Survey as early as May. Every minute is worth it to create a report on the state of the CDI industry that can be used year after year, filled with data about where the industry has been, where it is going, and how you can leverage that data to make informed decisions about how to structure and advance your own CDI programs and efforts.

Since I’m on the topic of CDI Week, don’t forget that this year’s CDI Week takes place September 13-17, so you can look for the Industry Report then. Also, if you haven’t yet seen it, we do have the official poster ready for you to download and use as soon as you please!

The theme this year is CDI Kitchen: Recipes for a Successful Program. You can expect some fun cooking-themed merchandise from us this year, as well as the usual T-shirts.

It’s never too early to start planning your own CDI Week festivities. If you started planning, share your ideas with us!

Editor’s note: Riel is the editor for ACDIS. Contact her at criel@acdis.org.