Additional Material - Reinstatement with Change Summary

Attachment 8- Additional Material

Reinstatement with Change

0920-0544

The results from the 2003 CSS indicated that NIOSH could (1) expand its outreach to the 20% to 25% of professionals who had not used NIOSH materials, (2) produce more publications that provide examples of how to implement and evaluate safety and health improvements, and (3) increase outreach efforts to better serve the occupational health service sectors, such as the occupational nurses and occupational physicians. The results from the NIOSH 2003 CSS also served to guide continuing efforts to improve the usefulness, relevance, and quality of NIOSH publications and outreach efforts. The results of the 2003 survey revealed a significant gap in our outreach efforts with regard to two of the four professional associations that participated in the study, namely, the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) and the American Congress of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM). While approximately 21% of the overall survey membership indicated that they had not knowingly used a NIOSH service or product, this percentage was higher among AAOHN (34%) and ACOEM (33%) survey participants. Thus, in response to the 2003 survey, NIOSH established a monthly systematized communication link in the form of NIOSH’s eNews that flows directly from NIOSH’s editorial desks to the desks of the editors of the AAOHN and ACOEM monthly newsletters and publications. This recognition, along with the growing usage of the Internet and e-mail, served as one of the main reasons why NIOSH launched its highly successful eNews less than two months after the results of the NIOSH 2003 survey were revealed. The NIOSH eNews is a monthly newsletter (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/enews/) with the purpose of enhancing NIOSH’s outreach. Each month, eNews reaches more than 24,000 subscribers with information on NIOSH products and services. Also, as a result of stakeholder feedback beginning with the 2003 survey findings, NIOSH adopted an “industry sector approach,” where the agency’s goals of preventing of injuries and illnesses are organized around eight industry sectors. This approach is known as the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) II. In response to stakeholder feedback, NIOSH also has undertaken a variety of innovative communication and outreach initiatives, including Research to Practice (r2p), Total Worker Health (TWH), and Prevention through Design (PtD).

Subsequently, NIOSH did a follow-up CSS to assess the initiatives spurred by the 2003 recommendations. The findings reported in 2010 confirmed that NIOSH continues to be a credible source of occupational safety and health information, NIOSH publications were being used more frequently than in previous years, and respondents are relying more on the NIOSH Website and other electronic resources. When compared with the 2003 results, gaps in NIOSH outreach efforts appeared to have been reduced. With regard to having read or referred to a NIOSH product or resource in the past, 82% of the total respondents said they had, and responses grouped by organization—AAOHN (80%), ACOEM (71%), AIHA (90%), and ASSE (85%)—also show an increase. However, the 2010 survey also revealed that the percentage of respondents who looked to NIOSH for OSH information dropped from 84% in 2003 to 76% in 2009 (when the 2010 survey data were collected). Results from the 2010 Survey suggest that NIOSH needs to partner more with stakeholder associations to assess the needs of those in the OSH community who are not using NIOSH resources. Since then, NIOSH has established a partner database, which documents the private companies, professional associations, and labor unions listed as partners on various projects. Another recommendation is that NIOSH develop strategies to increase awareness of electronic resources and newsletters. NIOSH has since established additional notifications, such as the monthly Research Rounds (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/research-rounds/) that highlights research conducted at NIOSH. There also is the NIOSH Science Blog (http://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/) with articles on NIOSH research, products, and timely topics of interest to workers, employers, and other stakeholders. The NIOSH Website also has expanded its offerings of video and multimedia products. The third recommendation from the 2010 survey was that NIOSH develop a broader range of tools that have direct application and provide clearer guidance on policy. In addition to being offered as a downloadable PDF document, the Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards, NIOSH’s most popular product, is being offered as a mobile app as well as a PDF document, both of which can be downloaded from the NIOSH Website (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/). As a larger strategy that addresses the aforementioned recommendations, NIOSH launched a 5-year Web Plan that considers the direction of the Institute’s work and reviews the history of the NIOSH Web. The plan identifies five key Web challenges NIOSH will experience in 2015-2019: adapting web content for mobile web delivery, preparing for growth of digital products and dissemination, sustainability of new digital products, developing a future strategy for new communication products and technology, and addressing projected staffing needs. Various goals have been identified as critical to maintaining NIOSH Web effectiveness in the next five years.

In addition to the two CSSs, from April 2008 to April 2009, NIOSH surveyed businesses, trade associations, and labor unions to understand how these organizations obtain and distribute workplace safety and health information to their members. The findings suggest that labor unions had the highest percentage of groups disseminating information to workers, most of the organizations deemed OSH information as important, and websites were the most common channel used to distribute information [Okun et al. 2016].

The 2003 CSS and the follow-up 2010 CSS established for NIOSH a method for gauging the effectiveness of its publications and identifying areas for improvement. Based on the findings of the 2003 and 2010 Surveys, NIOSH identified gaps in its outreach to members of the medical-based associations and in the delivering of current information in the form and manner in which practitioners preferred. The current proposed CSI Survey seeks to update the data collected for the 2010 survey and gather data on outreach initiatives NIOSH has undertaken in recent years. This survey is an effort by the agency to obtain current estimates of consumer use/benefit from NIOSH communication products as a whole, as well as to determine the adequacy of the agency’s circulation/delivery practices in light of changing distribution approaches and emergent technologies. More specifically, this updated survey will account for changes in NIOSH publications, digital product formats, and new dissemination channels (e.g., social media) emerging since survey data were collected for the 2010 report. The CSI will also solicit more audience-based information that reflects the new media environment in which many NIOSH publications are offered. Such expansions will yield findings that show how well customer service practices at NIOSH have followed the 2003 and 2010 recommendations, as well as provide insights into how users seek and use NIOSH information in the current digital environment. In addition, the CSI Survey will enable NIOSH to quantify the success of NIOSH’s outreach effort in customer satisfaction and will place even more emphasis on broader impact (e.g., use of NIOSH recommendations, sharing of information from NIOSH, and perceived changes in workplace safety due to NIOSH products). Also, it will gather more information about NIOSH’s Spanish-speaking audience and their use of the NIOSH en Español webpage. The investment of resources to organize and publish NIOSH-generated information is considerable as is the cost of distributing print materials. Cost savings can be actualized with the increased use and distribution of electronic materials and the phasing out of print surveys and follow-up notifications. Indications that different documents are finding appropriate uses, that the needs for certain subject matter and suitable topic treatments are being met, and that delivery mechanisms are working can offer assurances of reasonable pay-offs at least for a primary target group. Alternatively, indications of deficiencies are also beneficial in providing NIOSH with specific directions for change. Without the type of feedback afforded by this survey NIOSH would have no empirical basis for evaluating the effectiveness of its information dissemination efforts and impact relative to its mission of improving worker safety and health.