Participants
The participants in this study were selected using a snowball sample. A snowball sample includes those identified by the researchers and others referred by initial participants (McKenzie, Neiger, & Smeltzer, 2005). In this study the researchers initially identified 20 potential participants. These individuals were called and invited to participate in the study. If they agreed, they were interviewed. At the conclusion of the interview, they were asked to give the name(s) of other health educator(s) working in Indiana in a clinical setting, thus, the snowballing of the sample. A total of 40 individuals were contacted using this process with 25 (62.5%) willing to participate.

Instrumentation
An original questionnaire was created to identify the roles and responsibilities of health educators from Indiana working in clinical settings. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of developing a useful instrument was deciding what information was needed to better understand health educators and their roles in the clinical setting. The researchers developed an initial pool of 20 questions for the instrument. A review of the questions by a university professor was used to establish face validity. Content validity was established using a jury of experts. The jury was composed of six health educators working in a clinical setting. After the jurors agreed to participate, they were emailed a letter explaining the purpose of the instrument, a draft of the instrument and instructions for completing three tasks. First, they were asked to read each question and to make suggestions for making any unclear questions better. Second, they were asked to offer suggestions or new questions they thought should be included in the instrument. And third, each was asked to rate the questions as either essential, useful but not essential, or not necessary. Upon receipt of the jurors’ work, unclear items were rewritten, and some questions were deleted and added. The final instrument contained 24 questions.

Data Collection
Data were collected via a telephone or email survey. When the subjects were contacted by telephone, they were asked if they would be willing to participate in a survey about health educators working in a clinical setting. If so, they were interviewed then or at another convenient time. If the subjects felt uncomfortable about being interviewed by telephone, or did not have time for a telephone interview, the questionnaire was emailed to them for completion. Of the 25 completed questionnaires, two (8%) were completed via telephone and 23 (92%) were completed via email.

Upon receipt of each completed questionnaire, each was coded and the data were transferred to a computer scan form. Data analysis included tabulation of frequencies and percentages.