The ARC/STSA Board of Directors (BoD) listened to you, the Program Directors, when you said that it was too difficult to meet the timeline and satisfaction levels required when administering required surveys to Graduates and Employers. To continue with the document streamlining process, the BoD simplified the Graduate and Employer survey tools to cover ten (10) questions. The 5-point Likert scale remains unchanged for both survey tools.

The substantial streamlining of the standardized survey questions significantly reduced the threshold for satisfaction rate for both Employer and Graduate surveys. The return rate for both Graduate and Employer surveys remains at 50%, while the minimum satisfaction rate threshold for both survey tools has been reduced from the current 85% satisfaction to a uniform 70% satisfaction.

And to assist programs in meeting or exceeding the survey return rate threshold, the administration timeline for the Graduate survey has been eliminated so that the program may survey graduates at any time immediately after completion of the program. The administration timeline for the Employer survey has been eliminated, so that the program may survey employers at any time immediately after the graduate is employed in the field of Surgical Technology or in a related field or is continuing his/her education.

The ARC/STSA is implementing the new survey tools and satisfaction thresholds effective August 1, 2016. The new Graduate Satisfac