Smart Talk: Conducting a Needs Assessment

     As an educator, you know staff need includes educational programs (knowledge, skills, and abilities), career development, and organizational development and goals. What you might not know is to start. The best way to begin is to conduct a needs assessment — ie, a powerful, systematic exploration of what activities and goals — distinct from perceived needs or “wants”— that should be accomplished within a certain time frame.

     Conducting a needs assessment. A variety of techniques are available for conducting needs assessments. These include direct observation, questionnaires, consultations, interviews, focus groups, and tests to name a few. To get a true picture of the educational needs of your audience, use a combination of methods to get a complete picture from many sources and viewpoints.

     Observation. As you make rounds and you observe the activity in various areas, you notice an individual performing a wound dressing. You also notice the individual isn’t quite sure how to proceed. As an educator, you take advantage of this teaching moment and then tuck this away as a possible educational need on that particular floor.

     Questionnaires. By providing a written or computer-generated questionnaire, with a Likert scale (eg, 1 = completely disagree, 4 = completely agree), individuals can rank the importance of suggested educational topics. Remember to have an open-ended question to allow for any additional topics or items not specifically covered in the questionnaire. Positive aspects of questionnaires include the fact that they can be given to a large group of people, are less intrusive than some other types of needs assessments, and others can help you administer them.

     Interviews. In-depth interviews can help individuals identify their learning needs. Interviews can yield results that may not readily be identified in a questionnaire or survey, feedback is immediate, and responses can be clarified right away. However, interviewing takes time to learn and you may not have the luxury of having others help you. Be aware of voice inflections and body language when conducting interviews and, if using audio-taping, make sure the participants know this in advance.

     Focus groups. When conducting focus groups, you may be surprised at how one person’s response may help another person identify learning needs as well. Experienced moderators can be an asset in conducting focus groups but you will need to plan the questions. Moderators can be costly but the outcome may be worth it.

     Tests. If someone is required to take a pharmacology test before giving medications and the grade is not acceptable, you may be able to cover two issues at once — ie, medication calculations and drugs. This is a golden opportunity to provide group education. “I can’t do math” or “I need more pharmacology education” are common remarks that can be addressed through instruction.

     Requests from supervisors. Someone in a key position may identify a particular learning deficit and consults you on how to correct this need. Together, you can create a teaching strategy (discussed in a future column) that addresses the issue.

Importance

     Once you’ve determined the individuals’ educational needs, several factors should be considered.
     • Is in-house education cost-effective? Do you have the resources to conduct the program? Would it be beneficial to send staff to an outside conference where the program already has been developed?
     • Is there required education that must be completed because of legal or safety mandates?
     • What are the consequences if the program is not implemented? Is the senior management expecting a solution to an identified issue?
     • When is the best time to conduct a needs assessment? How often should you conduct an assessment?

     The answers to these questions lie within your own organization.

Analyzing the Information

     A key step in needs assessment is to analyze your data to determine what you can do with the information. If you have conducted a questionnaire, after coding the questions, you might use a statistical package such as SPSS (Chicago, IL) to analyze the data. If you use a commercial survey package, the company will analyze the data for you using descriptive statistics. You then only need print out data sheets.

     Interview or focus group data are analyzed by reviewing the transcripts and notes for common themes and/or categories that repeat across participants. Computer programs are available to assist with this task; someone will need to code and input the data.

     With this information in hand, you can begin to develop your educational programs to meet the needs of your internal (and possibly external) learners. Be sure to communicate your results and plans to all stakeholders and keep them informed of your progress.

This article was not subject to the Ostomy Wound Management peer-review process.