ASSESSMENT OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF NURSING STAFF: A CASE STUDY

Investment in education of nurses can help improve performance and the quality of provided services. Training needs assessment is the right step to design appropriate, and cost-effective programs. This study aimed to assess the educational needs of nursing staff.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 150 nurses working in teaching hospitals of Kerman in 2019. Data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire. This tool has five dimensions of nursing-related tasks (research/audit, communication/teamwork, clinical skills, administrative, managerial/supervisory). The face and content validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by four clinical nursing specialists. For reliability, Cronbachchr('39')s reliability coefficient was 0.89. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman and Kendall Tau correlation coefficient.

Most educational needs of nurses were dimensions of research and audit (9.09), administrative, managerial/supervisory (4.94), and communication/teamwork (3.7). More than one-third of nurses (42%) needed training to design a research study and 30% needed training to assess patientschr('39') clinical needs. There was no significant relationship between any of the demographic-occupational characteristics of the participants and the dimensions studied (p<0.05).

The most important educational needs for nurses were in the field of research and audit, as well as managerial and supervisory tasks. The educational needs of nurses can guide design the educational content provided to nurses in the curricula offered at medical universities. Application of educational programs based on nurseschr('39') needs increases their skills in clinical, managerial, and communication fields, and thus improves healthcare and increases patient safety.