Supporting and Strengthening the Home Visiting Workforce (SAS-HV): Testing and Validation of a Draft Measure of Reflective Supervision for Home Visiting

Instrument 8. Focus Group Protocol for Repeated Measures Supervisor Subsample

NOTE to OMB: The focus groups with supervisors who participated in the repeated measures subsample will use a semi-structured qualitative approach. The protocol below includes example questions that are similar to the questions we will ask. We will tailor the questions based on findings from the quantitative analyses. We will also tailor questions based on participant responses and questions.

Focus Group Guide

Introduction and Consent

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me about your experiences and perspectives on the reflective supervision measure and preliminary results. I’m [NAME] and I’ll be the primary leader of our focus group today. My colleague [NAME] is also on the call and will primarily take notes and manage the chat, but please know that you can message either of us if you need anything. 

First, I’d like to read an informed consent statement, which you also received by email. It may be helpful to follow along with the statement I read as it includes standard language we are required to state. 

As a home visiting supervisor, you are invited to participate in a focus group to share your perspectives on the measure of reflective supervision we are developing and your experiences completing the measure over time with multiple home visitors. The information collected in this focus group will be used to help refine the instructions and questions to strengthen the relevance and usefulness of the measure for home visiting supervisors.

The focus group will take approximately 60 minutes and we will send you a $45 electronic gift card after we finish, as a thank-you for participating. 

Voluntary Nature: Participation in the focus group is voluntary. You may choose not to participate or end your participation at any time without affecting your employment. You can decline to answer any questions for any reason.  

Benefits and Risks: There are no foreseeable risks to your participation in the focus group. Although you do not receive any direct benefits from participating, your experience and input will help to improve the measure of reflective supervision, and we hope lead to improved support for home visitors.  

Privacy: Your name or other personally identifying information will not appear in any report and your responses to the questions will remain private to the extent permitted by law. We will not share any of your responses with anyone else at your home visiting program. Since this is a group discussion, we cannot guarantee that others in the group will not talk with others about our discussion, though everyone is asked not to do so. We ask that you and all participants respect the privacy of others in this group and do not share anything that is said in this focus group with anyone outside of this group. Your anonymous responses may be included in a report that is shared with our funders and made available to the public. 

 

Audio Recording: I will audio-record our discussion today so we can be sure to capture your responses accurately. I will only record audio, not video. No one besides the research team will listen to the recording. If you want to say anything you do not want recorded, please let me know and I will be glad to pause the recording. Recordings will be transcribed and analyzed, and then destroyed. All of the information you share in this focus group will be stored in a password protected electronic database and will only be accessible to the research team. If you do not want to be audio-recorded, you have the option to not participate in the focus group. 

Do you have any questions?  

Do you agree to participate in the focus group?  

Participant 1: •  Yes   •  No 

Participant 2: •  Yes   •  No 

Participant 3: •  Yes   •  No 

Participant 4: •  Yes   •  No 

Participant 5: •  Yes   •  No 

Great, let’s get started.

Focus Group Guide Questions

Thanks again for joining me today. We are first going to start with some questions about your collective experiences with completing the measure. Don’t worry about hurting our feelings if you have any criticism of the measure or if you believe the results don’t accurately represent your experiences providing reflective supervision. We are asking for your honest feedback. Your perspectives are important to refine the measure and make sure it is relevant and clear to other supervisors.

PAUSE TO BEGIN RECORDING

Do you have your copy of the measure that we emailed you handy? You can have it available for reference if you would like.

Participant Experiences

• When you think back over your experience completing the measure, what are your thoughts on the length of the measure, in comparison to how useful you find it?

• Did the questions seem to represent the nature of a typical supervision session? Why or why not? What could be changed to make it feel more accurate?

• What was challenging about completing the measure? What could be changed to make completing the measure easier?

• Do you think the measure is feasible for supervisors to use? Would you recommend it to colleagues? Would you use it in the future?

• Do you think completing this measure has influenced your supervisory practices? How? Do you have any examples or stories to share?

• What else would you like to share with me about your experience completing this measure?

Data Review Questions

For comparisons of supervisor and supervisee results, share relevant data on screen and describe. For comparisons of supervisor and supervisee results, we will share relevant data on screen and describe. Example discussion questions include:

• What do these results tell us about reflective supervision practices? From the supervisors’ perspective? From the home visitors’ perspective? Why do you think the results do (or do not) align?

• What are your general reactions? What surprises you? What questions do these data raise?

For items that do not perform as expected, share relevant data on screen and describe. Example discussion questions include:

• What do you think about the clarity of these particular items? How clear and understandable are the words used in the questions?

• What do you think about the response options? What do you think the differences are between answer options?

• How essential are these items to the overall measure? What are your thoughts on keeping or removing these items?

STOP RECORDING 

I’ll go ahead and stop the recording now. Thanks so much for your participation. Did you have any questions for me before we wrap up?

We’ll use your feedback, and that from other participants to help further refine this measure. As a thank you for your time today, we’ll be reaching back out to you with a $45 gift card, I’ll send it to the same email address we’ve used for our other communications.

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