Needs Assessment

What is Needs Assessment?

Needs assessment is the systematic process of gathering information and using it to determine instructional solutions to close the gap between what learners know and do and what learners should know and do. The fundamental premise is that, for education to be useful to the participants, it must close a gap or discrepancy between exiting levels of knowledge, skill, competency, or attitude and a specific, desired level.

Who Should conduct the Needs Assessment?

Each activity has a designated director responsible for determining needs, developing a curriculum, identifying speakers and facilitators, and evaluating the outcomes of an activity.

Being on the inside of the medical education process, you have significant anecdotal evidence about what might enhance your learning. However, that anecdotal evidence might not provide a full picture for you, so to avoid unnecessary (and even potentially unproductive) work, we want to provide you with a systematic approach to defining what your team needs before embarking on content creation.

Needs assessment is the systematic process of gathering information and using it to determine instructional solutions to close the gap between what learners know and do and what learners should know and do. The fundamental premise is that, for education to be useful to the participants, it must close a gap or discrepancy between exiting levels of knowledge, skill, competency, or attitude and a specific, desired level.

In general, engaging additional faculty or professionals is advantageous for a couple of reasons:

• Additional perspectives can help drive enhancements in content, design, and/or delivery
• It helps spread the workload and makes improvements more achievable
• It helps with documentation, minutes, and file maintenance - tasks that are important in the accreditation review process
• It improves the overall credibility of the program
• If your audience includes nurses, you are required to include a nurse on the planning committee if seeking AANC approval

The division of continuing medical education is also required to be involved in planning in some capacity. We can bring a perspective on overall design, assist in needs assessment, provide data, and other services - ask us.

The Standard

According to the ACCME, Criterion 2 – The provider incorporates into CME activities the educational needs (knowledge, competence, or performance) that underlie the professional practice gaps of their own learners.

The basics are simple: let's design our education events based on objectives that identify a specific need among the learner community:

The basic idea: use a systematic approach to collect and analyze information that can be used to inform educational activities intended to close the gap between what physicians currently know on a given topic vs. the accepted knowledge base, standards, guidelines, etc. on that topic (i.e. what the physician needs to know to perform at a level that meets those standards and guidelines). 

To satisfy the standard, we must document the methods and sources used to determine the specific educational needs to be addressed by any proposed activity, and this documentation must be based on evidence, i.e. it can include but can't rely entirely on faculty perception. Some independent evaluation must be conducted to verify the need, and document the presence of a gap.

• The essential process is one of collecting information to develop instruction that closes the gap between what a learner group knows (and does) vs. what the group should know (and do), i.e. the education is intended to bridge the gap between current actual and future desired practice
  • So, ideally this happens prior to the development of any content
• The purpose is to identify and analyze a gap in knowledge, competence or performance, to serve as the basis for identifying relevant learning objectives that make the education event meaningful to the audience
• Sources of information can be categorized as (this is not an exhaustive list):

1. Inferred needs: new methods of diagnosis or treatment that are not widely disseminated or used; new medications or indications; new technologies or regulatory requirements
2. Perceived needs or interests: based on feedback, surveys, comments, or expert opinion
3. Proven needs: quality data; epidemiological data; local/regional/national statistical data; professional society requirements; research literature

Choices about teaching methods, sequence of topics, and resource materials are likely to be more effective if you first specify the desired results of the activity and how those results can be assessed. The questions below can help orient your presentation towards the needs of your learners

Each activity has a designated director responsible for determining needs, developing a curriculum, identifying speakers and facilitators, and evaluating the outcomes of an activity.

In general, engaging additional faculty or professionals is advantageous for a couple of reasons:

• Additional perspectives can help drive enhancements in content, design, and/or delivery
• It helps spread the workload and makes improvements more achievable
• It helps with documentation, minutes, and file maintenance - tasks that are important in the accreditation review process
• It improves the overall credibility of the program
• If your audience includes nurses, you are required to include a nurse on the planning committee if seeking AANC approval

The division of continuing medical education is also required to be involved in planning in some capacity. We can bring a perspective on overall design, assist in needs assessment, provide data, and other services - ask us.