TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

Training Needs Analysis

Training Needs Analysis

Introduction

Training needs analysis (TNA) is a relatively new concept for nursing, but has been used for many years by human resource managers (Bee and Bee, 1994), in business ( Pearson, G.A., 1987. Business ethics: implications for continuing education/staff development practice. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing 18 1, pp. 20-24. View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (2)Pearson, 1987), industry ( Boydell, 1976) and general education ( Walklin, 1991). A considerable literature has developed around TNA and this has stimulated the publication of numerous standard textbooks (see for example Rowntree, 1985; Peterson, 1992). Although most of these publications are not aimed specifically at a nursing audience, they are increasingly being used by nurse educators ( Pedder, 1998). The purpose of this article is to review the literature relating to TNA as it applies to post-registration nursing education and to explore its potential influence on course planning and implementation.

2. Background

Nurse educators, like the more traditional advocates of TNA, recognize that it is the initial step of a cyclical process contributing to an overall strategy of training and education (Furze and Pearcey, 1999). The cycle should begin with systematic consultation to identify the learning needs of the target population ( Pedder, 1998). A training intervention is then developed to meet this need and once implemented, is evaluated to determine how effective it has been. Amendments to the next cycle should be addressed through evaluation, but changes in the demands placed on or by the employing organisation also need to be taken into account. New Government policy, advances in technology, role expansion and the increasing expectations of service users are additional drivers for change in post-registration nursing education ( Pedder, 1998).

In recent years there has been much debate concerning the extent to which activities such as clinical audit, evaluation and action research fulfil the requirements of 'real' research (Balogh, 1996) and it is perhaps only a matter of time before the debate is extended to TNA. Numerous authors have been concerned with differentiating between research and audit and there is some debate on the extent to which they differ ( Closs and Cheater, 1996). These authors consider that audit can highlight areas where further research needs to be conducted while the audit process itself can be a topic for research.

A soon as organisational goals are mentioned, the question of stakeholder involvement arises (Rowntree, 1985). Wright (1999) advocates an approach incorporating the demands of the organisation, the occupation or role, the needs of the individual performing it and the requirements of the service user. In the health care industry this process has the potential to be time-consuming and complex because of the vested interests of the many parties concerned. Possible stakeholders within and closely related to organisations responsible for delivering health care include;

• employees, who may or may not be in a position to choose whether they will attend education and training initiatives.

• service users, who are the ultimate beneficiaries of ...