Summary 0f FY04 Changes
August 4, 2005
Carrying Over FY03 Records
After data cleaning,
all FY03 data will continue to be available for searching, viewing,
exporting (downloading), and report writing. In addition, trainee
records that have already been entered will remain available for
editing purposes, although activity, product, and project records from
FY03 and earlier will not be available to edit. The FY04 version of
NIRS will have a ?Save As? feature, which will allow programs to pull
up activity, product, project, and trainee year records from FY03 and
previous FYs, automatically change the FY field to 2004, and allow
users to make any other changes appropriate for copying the record over
to the FY04 reporting period.
Save As
NIRS now has a "Save As" feature,
which was designed to alleviate the time demands of programs having to
re-enter data that are the same as or similar to other years? data, as
well as save programs from having to reenter current FY data that are
the same as or similar to data that have already been entered for the
current FY (e.g., repetitive activities, such as monthly project
development meetings). The ?Save As? feature allows programs to pull up
activity, product, and project records from any FY and make any changes
appropriate for copying the record over to (or within) the FY04
reporting period. More detailed information on the ?Save As? feature
will be contained in the FY04 User?s Guide.
ADD Reporting Requirements
Activity
records for which ?Health-Related Activities? is selected as an Area of
Emphasis will contribute to the data that AUCD submits to ADD in
compliance with the Government Performance Results Act of 1993 (GPRA).
GPRA requires each Federal government agency to establish performance
indicators to be used in measuring or assessing the relevant outputs,
service levels, and outcomes of each program the agency funds. For
UCEDDs, ADD?s GPRA measure will entail tracking the number of
individuals with developmental disabilities and family members who
acquire the knowledge and skills to access needed health care services.
MCHB Reporting Requirements
All
modifications to NIRS for FY04 have been made with careful
consideration of MCHB reporting requirements, including performance
measures that are currently being developed and annual progress
reporting.
All Datasets
FY Field: The FY field on the activity, product,
and project entry forms will be locked at 2004. Programs will no longer
be able to enter activity, product, and project records for previous or
future FYs. For trainee year records, the FY field will default to
2004, but that field may be changed to previous or future FYs.
Linked Records: When one record is linked/affiliated with another record, the linked record is now hyper-linked in the View mode so that programs can click on the linked record to view it. This applies to Trainee Follow-up Surveys that have corresponding Trainee Records and vice-versa; Products that are linked to Activities; and Projects that are linked to Activities.
Trainee Dataset
Trainee Contact Information: The trainee main contact entry form has been modified so that the trainee?s name and contact information is no longer selected from the shared list of contacts. For FY04, any personal/contact information that is entered into the trainee main contact form will not be accessible for product or project contacts. Those contacts will be shared but maintained separately from trainee contact information. Note: Because of the relocation of trainee contact information from a separate, shared contact form into the trainee main contact entry form, importing routines and custom reports on trainees that were developed in FY03 may have to be modified in order to function properly.
Disability Status of Trainees: A field has been added to the trainee main contact entry form to capture the same disability information on trainees as the Trainee Follow-up Survey captures.
Type of Participation: "Research" has been added as an option.
Discipline: "Family Medicine" has been added as an option, in addition to the FY03 option of General Medicine
Training Completion Date: For FY04, the Training Completion Date field in the trainee year entry form will be required instead of optional. If the training completion date is not yet known when the trainee record is being completed, an estimate may be entered and supplanted by an exact date when that is known.
Curriculum: ?Pediatric Residency" has been added as an option.
Financial Support: "Academic Department" has been added as an option; "Other -- Please Specify" has been changed to "Other Grant -- Please Specify."
Listing Trainees: In FY04, all trainee year records for current trainees will be included under the trainee?s name in the List function (instead of only the current year record), for trainees that have more than one year record.
Employment Fields in Trainee Follow-up Survey: The employment fields in the Trainee Follow-up Survey have been expanded to accommodate more detailed information.
Projects Dataset
Changes to Funding Categories:
- Under the Federal Funding Sources category, "Head Start" has been added under ACF;
- The "State &Local" category has been split into separate "State" and ?Local? categories; the State Funding Sources options remain the same as those for the previous State & Local Funding Sources options; the new "Local" category has the sub-options of "Health," "School District," "Social Services," and "Other;? additional NIH Funding sub-categories have been included;
- "University" and "AUCD" have been added as options under the Other Funding Sources category.
Areas of Emphasis: 3 new sub-categories have been added under the ?Other? option ? "Assistive Technology," ?Cultural Diversity," and "Leadership."
Project Collaboration: "National Association" has been added as an option.
Consumer Participation: "Volunteer" has been added as an option.
Activities Dataset
Areas of Emphasis: 3 new sub-categories have been added under the ?Other? option ? "Assistive Technology," ?Cultural Diversity," and "Leadership."
Participants: the "Persons with DD/Children with SHCN" option has been divided into 2 separate options ? "Adults with Disabilities" and "Children/Adolescents with SHCN:" a new option of "Legislators/Policymakers" has been added.
Discipline of Other Classroom Students: In keeping with MCHB reporting requirements, the discipline of other classroom students will be tracked under the Numbers and Types of Participants field in the activity entry form. In addition to indicating the discipline of the course or class being reported, programs will now also have to complete a sub-form that asks for numbers of students in that activity for each discipline.
Activity Collaboration: An ?Other? category has been added to the list of categories in the Activity Collaboration field to expand the options that were available in FY03. In addition to checking ?Other,? programs may specify the name or description of the agency with which they collaborated in the text box provided with the ?Other? category.
Activity Date Field: Following the Activity Duration field, an optional Activity Date field has been added to the activity entry form, in case programs want to record, track, search by, and report on activities according to the date they occurred.
Searching Activities by Project Affiliation: The Search function has been enhanced to allow for searching activities by project affiliation.
Products Dataset
Type of Material ? The FY03 "Book" option has been changed to "Book/Book Chapter;" "Handout" and "Poster" have been added as new options.
Alternative Formats ? "Large Print" has been added as an option.
Listing of Products: The way products are listed has been changed so that all products are listed alphabetically, with any activities to which they are linked listed alphabetically under the product title. In FY03, unlinked products were listed alphabetically, followed by an alphabetical listing of activities to which products were linked with the product title underneath the activity title.
Levels of Access
In order to better
accommodate users with restricted access who need to work between
datasets and to help ensure the privacy of trainee contact information,
the 4 levels of NIRS access have been modified as follows (note new
language in Italics).
- "Read Only" users have access to view all data fields, except for personal/contact information in trainee records.
- "Read/Write Own" users have access to view all data fields, except for personal/contact information in trainee records that they did not create, and they may edit records that they created, as well as edit product records that they did not create but are linking to activity records they created.
- "Read/Write" users have access to view and edit all data fields.
- "Admin" users have Read/Write access, plus access to export the data and access to this form.
Managing High Numbers of Records: Features have been added to the List function of NIRS, in order to improve the retrieval and review of large numbers of records. Instead of listing all records in one single long list, the records will be listed in subsets of 50, with ?First,? ?Back,? ?Next,? and ?Last? buttons provided to scroll through records more easily.
Error Reports: Effective with the FY04 version of NIRS, the data entry reports for all datasets will no longer report optional fields that are blank as errors. Only required fields will be included in the error reports.
Search Headers: The Search function has been enhanced to include headers at the top of the list of records that were retrieved for each search, indicating the search criteria used to retrieve the listed records. This should assist users in recalling the parameters of the subset of records they are viewing. The List function will stay in the mode of the last search criteria, until new criteria are defined.
Format of Standard and Custom Report Lists: Instead of having to select standard and custom-designed reports from a shared dropdown list, standard reports are now listed alphabetically under separate headers for standard and custom reports and, instead of being listed in a dropdown menu, they are hyper-linked.
Exporting: The Export page has been updated with an FY field so that programs can select the FY from which they want to download data.
To answer questions or concerns please contact Maggie Nygren([email protected]) for technical and programmatic questions regarding data.
