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How to Conduct Needs Assessment Part 1: What is it and why do it?

Dec 14, 2017 | Blog

What is Needs Assessment?

Needs assessment is a process for determining an organization’s needs. It usually consists of three main parts:

• Data Collection & Analysis
• Final Production

A needs assessment is the “what” (what the organization needs) that precedes the gap analysis, which is the “how” (how to close the gap between where the organization is currently and where they want or need to be).

Why is it Important?

At a busy company there are so many things going on, that it is hard to pin down exactly what may be holding it back. Needs assessment is important because it helps an organization determine the gaps that are preventing it from reaching its desired goals. In A Guide to Performing a Needs Assessment and a Gap Analysis , Anthony J. Jannetti says these gaps can exist in either knowledge, practices, or skills. Knowing what is working well and what needs to be changed is crucial to progressing effectively towards those goals and making an organization successful.

Needs assessment addresses these concerns from all levels, starting at the 30,000 foot view and drilling down further and further into the individual organization, to arrive at a plan with specific actions for improvement.

How Does it Work?

Sometimes we may know what tool is ideal for a situation, but we might not know how to use that tool. For instance, we may find ourselves in a sushi restaurant and the waiter hands us a pair of chopsticks, but if we don’t have experience eating with chopsticks we will not be able to use them effectively.

We know that needs assessment is the appropriate tool but we have not yet explored how to conduct it. To illustrate needs assessment, we will use a fictitious company throughout this blog series named Wants and Needs, Inc. Wants and Needs, Inc. struggles with high employee turnover, and its management wonders if some kind of training program might be effective in helping the company retain its workers.

The decision should not be undertaken in a vacuum. There are many factors to consider, including the external environment the company exists within (such as the existing software tools that could be used to build the training), how the company interacts with the external environment (such as determining any appropriate training courses or materials that already exist), what the company’s strengths and weaknesses are (such as if the company can create its own effective training), as well as the things the company already does well and those that they need to improve upon.

After lengthy consideration, Wants and Needs Inc. decides to introduce a formal mentorship program in their organization. They hope that providing more career growth opportunities will help combat high employee turnover. They have engaged a consultant to conduct needs assessment and we will follow them through the various stages of the needs assessment process as we discover how it works.

Now that we understand the three main parts of needs assessment are initiation , data collection & analysis , and final product , let’s explore how to do each of these parts.

•       Initiation:

Initiation starts out by identifying the “frame factors ,” otherwise known as “limiting factors,” for the needs assessment project, the organization being analyzed, and the project stakeholders.

(Some of these limiting factors will not become apparent until after meeting with the client, which comes next. As Peter Block discusses in his book, Flawless Consulting, this customer meeting allows for the exploration of the problems as well as to align the expectations of both the client and the consultant.)

Next, the consultant creates a project proposal and both the consultant and Needs and Wants Inc. enter into a verbal or written contract.

The final step of initiation is a kick-off meeting to determine the next steps.

•       Data Collection & Analysis:

Data collection & analysis follows the initiation stage. During this stage, we perform a PEST (political, economic, social, and technological) analysis and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis, and collect data. PEST analysis happens first and it examines the macro-level factors that make up the environment that the organization exists within. These factors are external to the organization itself and include the political, economic, social, and technological factors. The PEST analysis comes first because it occurs from the broadest vantage point and can help identify roadblocks in the environment.

Next, SWOT analysis attempts to identify the strengths and weakness, which are internal to the company, as well as the opportunities and threats, which are external to the company. SWOT analysis includes some external factors, but it starts to narrow its scope, compared to the PEST analysis.

Then, we collect data. We conduct interviews, observe, give surveys, and review existing documents. Using these diverse methods ensures triangulation–revealing trends and painting a more accurate picture of what is occurring.

Data collection & analysis is, of course, the analysis of the data we’ve collected. We review the PEST analysis results to get the big picture, review the SWOT analysis results to determine areas of success as well as areas of concern, and we analyze all data that has been collected.

•       Final Product:

The third and final phase of the needs assessment is the final product . This include a summary of the findings, the migration strategy detailing which driving forces should be strengthened and which restraining forces should be limited, and a final report that includes recommendations.

In “ Tips for Mentoring Employees, Part 1: What’s a Mentor? ” and “ Tips for Mentoring Employees, Part 2: How to Mentor Successfully ”, we discussed how mentorship is valuable for mentors, mentees, and the companies that they work for. In the next few parts of this blog post, we will continue to use the theme of mentorship to demonstrate how to conduct a needs assessment.

Throughout this multiple part blog post, as we follow Wants and Needs, Inc., we will explore the various aspects of needs assessment in more detail, diving into PEST analysis, SWOT analysis, and a migration strategy involving Force Field analysis.

The next post will explain in detail how to conduct a PEST analysis–stay tuned.

Is your organization getting ready to start a needs assessment? Have additional questions? Drop us a line.

Click here to continue reading:  How to Conduct Needs Assessment Part 2: PEST Analysis ➤

Alex Weisberg  serves as an Instructional Designer on the Professional Learning and Instructional Design team for NC State Industry Expansion Solutions (IES). His focus is on working with subject matter experts to design, develop, and assess training content to ensure it is engaging and effective. Prior to joining IES, Alex worked at PTC as an Education Editor Specialist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University. His experience in adult education spans over 6 years working with subject matter experts to improve and develop training materials.

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

A guiding framework for needs assessment evaluations to embed digital platforms in partnership with Indigenous communities

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft

Affiliation School of Occupational and Public Health, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON, Canada

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Software, Visualization, Writing – original draft

Affiliation School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Île-à-la-Crosse School Division, The Northern Village of Île-à-la-Crosse, Île-à-la-Crosse, SK, Canada

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Resources, Supervision

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations DEPtH Lab, Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University, London, ON, Canada, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada

• Jasmin Bhawra, 
• M. Claire Buchan, 
• Brenda Green, 
• Kelly Skinner, 
• Tarun Reddy Katapally

• Published: December 22, 2022
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279282
• Reader Comments

Introduction

In community-based research projects, needs assessments are one of the first steps to identify community priorities. Access-related issues often pose significant barriers to participation in research and evaluation for rural and remote communities, particularly Indigenous communities, which also have a complex relationship with academia due to a history of exploitation. To bridge this gap, work with Indigenous communities requires consistent and meaningful engagement. The prominence of digital devices (i.e., smartphones) offers an unparalleled opportunity for ethical and equitable engagement between researchers and communities across jurisdictions, particularly in remote communities.

This paper presents a framework to guide needs assessments which embed digital platforms in partnership with Indigenous communities. Guided by this framework, a qualitative needs assessment was conducted with a subarctic Métis community in Saskatchewan, Canada. This project is governed by an Advisory Council comprised of Knowledge Keepers, Elders, and youth in the community. An environmental scan of relevant programs, three key informant interviews, and two focus groups (n = 4 in each) were conducted to systematically identify community priorities.

Through discussions with the community, four priorities were identified: (1) the Coronavirus pandemic, (2) climate change impacts on the environment, (3) mental health and wellbeing, and (4) food security and sovereignty. Given the timing of the needs assessment, the community identified the Coronavirus pandemic as a key priority requiring digital initiatives.

Recommendations for community-based needs assessments to conceptualize and implement digital infrastructure are put forward, with an emphasis on self-governance and data sovereignty.

Citation: Bhawra J, Buchan MC, Green B, Skinner K, Katapally TR (2022) A guiding framework for needs assessment evaluations to embed digital platforms in partnership with Indigenous communities. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279282. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279282

Editor: Stephane Shepherd, Swinburne University of Technology, AUSTRALIA

Received: June 1, 2022; Accepted: December 2, 2022; Published: December 22, 2022

Copyright: © 2022 Bhawra et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Data are co-owned by the community and all data requests should be approved by the Citizen Scientist Advisory Council and the University of Regina Research Office. Citizen Scientist Advisory Council Contact: Mr. Duane Favel, Mayor of Ile-a-lacrosse, email: [email protected] ; [email protected] University of Regina Research Office contact: Ara Steininger, Research Compliance Officer; E-mail: [email protected] . Those interested can access the data in the same manner as the authors.

Funding: TRK received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canada Research Chairs Program to conduct this research. The funding organization had no role to play in any part of the study implementation of manuscript generation.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Community engagement has been the cornerstone of participatory action research in a range of disciplines. Every community has a unique culture and identity, hence community members are the experts regarding their diverse histories, priorities, and growth [ 1 – 3 ]. As a result, the successful uptake, implementation, and longevity of community-based research initiatives largely depends on meaningful community engagement [ 4 – 9 ]. There is a considerable body of evidence establishing the need for ethical community-research partnerships which empower citizens and ensure relevant and sustainable solutions [ 1 – 3 , 10 ]. For groups that have been marginalized or disadvantaged, community-engaged research that prioritizes citizens’ control in the research process can provide a platform to amplify citizens’ voices and ensure necessary representation in decision-making [ 11 ]. Such initiatives must be developed in alignment with a community’s cultural framework, expectations, and vision [ 12 ] to support continuous and meaningful engagement throughout the project. In particular, when partnering with Indigenous communities, a Two-Eyed Seeing approach can provide valuable perspective to combine the strengths of Indigenous and Western Knowledges, including culturally relevant methods, technologies, and tools [ 13 – 15 ].

Many communities have a complicated relationship with research as a result of colonialism, and the trauma of exploitation and discrimination has continued to limit the participation of some communities in academic partnerships [ 16 ]. Indigenous Peoples in Canada experience a disproportionate number of health, economic, and social inequalities compared to non-Indigenous Canadians [ 17 ]. Many of these health (e.g., elevated risk of chronic and communicable diseases) [ 18 – 21 ]), socioeconomic (e.g., elevated levels of unemployment and poverty) [ 19 , 22 – 24 ], and social (e.g., racism and discrimination) [ 19 , 22 – 24 ]) inequities can be traced back to the long-term impacts of assimilation, colonization, residential schools, and a lack of access to healthcare [ 19 , 20 , 22 – 24 ]. To bridge this gap, and more importantly, to work towards Truth and Reconciliation [ 25 ], work with Indigenous Peoples must be community-driven, and community-academia relationship building is essential before exploring co-conceptualization of initiatives [ 26 ].

One of the first steps in building a relationship is to learn more about community priorities by conducting a needs assessment [ 27 , 28 ]. A needs assessment is a research and evaluation method for identifying areas for improvement or gaps in current policies, programs, and services [ 29 ]. When conducted in partnership with a specific community, needs assessments can identify priorities and be used to develop innovative solutions, while leveraging the existing knowledge and systems that communities have in place [ 30 ]. Needs assessments pave the path for understanding the value and applicability of research for community members, incorporating key perspectives, and building authentic partnerships with communities to support effective translation of research into practice.

For rural, remote, and northern communities within Canada, issues related to access (e.g., geographic location, transportation, methods of communication, etc.) pose significant barriers to participation in research and related initiatives [ 31 ]. Digital devices, and in particular, the extensive usage of smartphones [ 32 ] offers a new opportunity to ethically and equitably engage citizens [ 33 ]. Digital platforms (also referred to as digital tools) are applications and software programs accessible through digital devices. Digital platforms can be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from project management, to healthcare delivery or mass communication [ 34 ]. Digital infrastructure–the larger systems which support access and use of these digital platforms, including internet, satellites, cellular networks, and data storage centres [ 34 ]. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has catalyzed the expansion of digital technology, infrastructure and the use of digital devices in delivering essential services (e.g., healthcare) and programs to communities [ 35 , 36 ].

While digital platforms have been used in Indigenous communities for numerous initiatives, including environmental mapping initiatives (e.g., research and monitoring, land use planning, and wildlife and harvest studies) [ 37 , 38 ] and telehealth [ 39 ], there has largely been isolated app development without a corresponding investment in digital infrastructure. This approach limits the sustainability of digital initiatives, and importantly does not acknowledge an Indigenous world view of holistic solutions [ 39 ].

Thus given the increasing prominence of digital devices [ 39 , 40 ], it is critical to evaluate the conceptualization, implementation, and knowledge dissemination of digital platforms. To date, there is little guidance on how to evaluate digital platforms, particularly in partnership with rural and remote communities [ 41 ]. A review of recent literature on community-based needs assessments uncovered numerous resources for conducting evaluations of digital platforms, however, a key gap is the lack of practical guidance for conducting needs assessments in close collaboration with communities in ways that acknowledge existing needs, resources, supports and infrastructure that also incorporates the potential role of digital platforms in addressing community priorities.

This paper aims to provide researchers and evaluators with a framework (step-by-step guide) to conduct needs assessments for digital platforms in collaboration with Indigenous communities. To achieve this goal, a novel needs assessment framework was developed using a Two-Eyed Seeing approach [ 13 – 15 ] to enable the identification of community priorities, barriers and supports, as well as existing digital infrastructure to successfully implement digital solutions. To demonstrate the application of this framework, a community-engaged needs assessment conducted with a subarctic Indigenous community in Canada is described and discussed in detail.

Framework design and development

This project commenced with the design and development of a new framework to guide community-based needs assessments in the digital age.

Needs assessments

Needs assessments are a type of formative evaluation and are often considered a form of strategic or program planning, even more than they are considered a type of evaluation. Needs assessments can occur both before and during an evaluation or program implementation; however, needs assessments are most effective when they are conducted before a new initiative begins or before a decision is made about what to do (e.g., how to make program changes) [ 29 ]. Typically, a needs assessment includes: 1) collecting information about a community; 2) determining what needs are already being met; and 3) determining what needs are not being met and what resources are available to meet those needs [ 42 ].

Framework development

Based on existing literature, community consultation, and drawing expertise from our team of evaluation experts who have over a decade of experience working with Indigenous communities on a range of research and evaluation projects, a novel framework was developed to guide community-based needs assessments focused on the application of digital platforms.

This framework (see Fig 1 ) is driven by core questions necessary to identify community priorities that can be addressed by developing and implementing digital platforms. Through team discussion and community consultation, five key topic areas for the assessment of community needs were identified: i) current supports; ii) desired supports; iii) barriers; iv) community engagement; and v) digital access and connectivity. A series of general questions across the five needs assessment topic areas were developed. Thereafter, a set of sub-questions were embedded in each key topic area.

• PPT PowerPoint slide
• PNG larger image
• TIFF original image

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279282.g001

The Guiding Framework outlines an approach for conducting community needs assessments which can be adapted across communities and jurisdictions. This framework offers a flexible template that can be used iteratively and applied to various community-engaged needs assessments in a range of areas, including but not limited to community health and wellness projects. The questions assigned to each topic area can be used to guide needs assessments of any priority identified by community stakeholders as suitable for addressing with digital platforms.

Needs assessment methods

The Guiding Framework was implemented in collaboration with a subarctic Indigenous community in Canada, and was used to identify key community priorities, barriers, supports, and existing digital infrastructure which could inform the design and implementation of tailored digital platforms.

Using an environmental scan of relevant documents and qualitative focus groups and interviews, a needs assessment was conducted with the Northern Village of Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan, Canada between February and May 2020.

This project is governed by a Citizen Scientist Advisory Council which included researchers, Knowledge Keepers, Elders, and youth from Île-à-la-Crosse. The study PI (TRK) and Co-Investigator (JB) developed a relationship with key decision-makers in Île-à-la-Crosse in 2020. Through their guidance and several community visits, the decision-makers introduced the research team to Elders, youth, and other community members to gain a better understanding of current priorities and needs in Île-à-la-Crosse. The research team developed relationships with these community members and invited them to join the Council to formally capture feedback and plan ongoing projects to promote health and wellbeing in the community. The Council represents the needs and interests of the community, and guides the project development, implementation, and evaluation. Council members were provided with Can $150 (US $119.30) as honoraria for each meeting to respect their time, knowledge, and contributions.

Written consent was obtained from all focus group participants and verbal consent was obtained from all key informants participating in interviews. This study received ethics clearance from the research ethics boards of the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan through a synchronized review protocol (REB# 2017–29).

Established in 1776, Île-à-la-Crosse is a northern subarctic community with road access in northwest Saskatchewan. Sakitawak, the Cree name for Île-à-la-Crosse, means “where the rivers meet,” hence the community was an historically important meeting point for the fur trade in the 1800s [ 43 , 44 ] The community lies on a peninsula on the Churchill River, near the intersections with the Beaver River and Canoe River systems. Île-à-la-Crosse has a rich history dating back to the fur trade. Due to its strategic location, Montreal-based fur traders established the first trading point in Île-à-la-Crosse in 1776, making the community Saskatchewan’s oldest continually inhabited community next to Cumberland House [ 45 ]. In 1821, Île-à-la-Crosse became the headquarters for the Hudson’s Bay Company’s operations in the territory. In 1860, the first convent was established bringing Western culture, medical services, and education to the community.

Île-à-la-Crosse has a population of roughly 1,300 people [ 19 ]. Consistent with Indigenous populations across Canada, the average age of the community is 32.7 years, roughly 10 years younger than the Canadian non-Indigenous average [ 19 ]. Census data report that just under half (44%) of the community’s population is under the age of 25, 46.3% are aged 25–64, and 9.3% aged 65 and over [ 19 ]. Members of the community predominantly identify as Métis (77%), with some identifying as First Nations (18%), multiple Indigenous responses (1.2%), and non-Indigenous (2.7%) [ 19 ]. Many community members are employed in a traditional manner utilizing resources of the land (e.g., hunting, fishing, trapping), others in a less traditional manner (e.g., lumbering, tourism, wild rice harvesting), and some are employed through the hospital and schools. The community currently has one elementary school with approximately 200 students from preschool to Grade 6, and one high school serving Grades 7–12 with adult educational programming. Île-à-la-Crosse has a regional hospital with Emergency Services, which includes a health services centre with a total of 29 beds. Other infrastructure of the community includes a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) station, a village office, volunteer fire brigade, and a catholic church [ 46 ].

Needs assessment approach

Île-à-la-Crosse shared their vision of integrating digital technology and infrastructure as part of its growth, thus the needs assessment was identified as an appropriate method to provide the formative information necessary to understand what the needs are, including who (i.e., players, partners), and what (i.e., information sources) would need to be involved, what opportunities exist to address the needs, and setting priorities for action with key community stakeholders [ 47 ]. As a starting point and rationale for this needs assessment, the community of Île-à-la-Crosse values the potential of technology for improving health communication, information reach, access to resources, and care, and was interested in identifying priorities to begin building digital infrastructure. Given the timing of the COVID-19 pandemic, being responsive to community health needs were key priorities that they wanted to start addressing using a digital platform. This needs assessment facilitated and enabled new conversations around key priorities and next steps.

The evaluation approach was culturally-responsive and included empowerment principles [ 48 – 50 ]. Empowerment evaluation intends to foster self-determination. The empowerment approach [ 50 ] involved community members–represented through the Citizen Scientist Advisory Council–engaging in co-production of the evaluation design and implementation by establishing key objectives for the evaluation, informing evaluation questions, building relevant and culturally responsive indicators, developing focus group guides, leading recruitment and data collection, and interpreting results [ 51 ]. In this way, the approach incorporated local community and Indigenous Knowledges as well as Western knowledge, in a similar approach to Two-Eyed Seeing [ 13 – 15 ]. Using these needs assessment evaluation results, the community will identify emerging needs and potential application issues, and work with the researchers to continue shaping project development and implementation.

Two-Eyed Seeing to embed digital platforms

Two-Eyed Seeing as described by Elder Albert Marshall [ 13 , 14 ], refers to learning to see with the strengths of Indigenous and Western Knowledges. Our engagement and overall approach to working with the community of Île-à-la-Crosse takes a Two-Eyed Seeing lens, from co-conceptualization of solutions, which starts with understanding the needs of the community. All needs are a result of direct Indigenous Knowledge that was provided by the Advisory Council. Indigenous Knowledge is not limited to the knowledge of Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers; however, they play a critical role in guiding that knowledge through by providing historical, geographic, and cultural context. Moreover, the Knowledge Keepers can be key decision-makers in the community, and in our case, they were key informants who participated in this needs assessment. Every aspect of needs assessment was dependent on the Advisory Council and Key informants providing the Indigenous Knowledge that the research team needed to tailor digital solutions. As a result, Two-Eyed Seeing approach informed all aspects of the research process.

As we are working to develop, and bring digital platforms and technologies (i.e., Western methods) to address key community priorities, Indigenous Knowledge is central to the overall project. Indigenous Elders, decision-makers, and Advisory Council members are bringing both their historical and lived experience to inform project goals, key priority areas, target groups, and methods. Île-à-la-Crosse is a predominantly Metis community, which differs in culture from other Indigenous communities in Canada—First Nations and Inuit communities. Ceremony is not a key part of community functioning; thus, specific cultural ceremonies were not conducted upon advice of the Advisory Council. Instead, the knowledge of historical issues, challenges, and success stories in the community is considered Indigenous Knowledge for this needs assessment, and more importantly, this Indigenous Knowledge informed the focus areas and next steps for this project. Overall, the spirit of collaboration and co-creation which combined Western research methods/technology with Indigenous Knowledge and expertise is considered Two-Eyed Seeing in this project. This lens was taken at all phases, from the engagement stage to Advisory Council meetings, to planning and executing the needs assessment and next steps.

Data collection

In order to obtain an in-depth understanding of the key priorities and supports within the community of Île-à-la-Crosse, this needs assessment used a qualitative approach. An environmental scan was conducted in February 2020 of current school and community policies and programs. Published reports, meeting memos, community social media accounts, and the Île-à-la-Crosse website were reviewed for existing policies and programs. The Citizen Scientist Advisory Council identified appropriate data sources for the document review and corroborated which programs and initiatives were currently active in the community.

Qualitative data were collected from key decision-makers and other members within the community. A purposeful convenience sampling approach was employed to identify members of the community who could serve on the Council and participate in focus group discussions. Key decision makers and existing Council members recommended other community members who could join the focus group discussions to provide detailed and relevant information on community priorities, digital infrastructure, supports, and challenges. Two focus groups were conducted by members of the research team in Île-à-la-Crosse with the Council in May 2020. Focus group participants were asked to describe community priorities, supports, and barriers, as well as experience and comfort with digital platforms. Each focus group had four participants, were two-hours in length, and followed an unstructured approach. Three key informant interviews were conducted in Île-à-la-Crosse between February and April 2020. One-hour interviews were conducted one-on-one and followed a semi-structured interview format. The focus groups and key informant interviews were led by the study PI, TRK, and Co-Investigator, JB, who have extensive training and experience with qualitative research methods, particularly in partnership with Indigenous communities. Focus groups and key informant interviews were conducted virtually using Zoom [ 52 ]. The key informant interviews and focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed. All data were aggregated, anonymized, and securely stored in a cloud server. Data are owned by the community. Both the Council and the research team have equal access to the data.

Data analysis

All documents identified through the environmental scan were reviewed for key themes. A list of existing school and community programs was compiled and organized by theme (i.e., education-focused, nutrition-focused, health-focused, etc.). Follow-up conversations with key informants verified the continued planning and provision of these programs.

Following the 6-step method by Braun and Clarke (2006), a thematic analysis was conducted to systematically identify key topic areas and patterns across discussions [ 53 ]. A shortlist of themes was created for the key informant interviews and focus groups, respectively. A manual open coding process was conducted by two reviewers who reached consensus on the final coding manual and themes. Separate analyses were conducted for key informant interviews and focus group discussions; however, findings were synthesized to identify key themes and sub-themes in key priorities for the community, community supports and barriers, as well as digital connectivity and infrastructure needs.

Needs assessment findings

The needs assessment guiding framework informed specific discussions of key issues in the community of Île-à-la-Crosse. Key informant interviews and focus group discussions commenced by asking about priorities–“what are the key areas of focus for the community?” In all conversations–including a document review of initiatives in Île-à-la-Crosse–health was highlighted as a current priority; hence, questions in the guiding framework were tailored to fit a needs assessment focused on community health. The following five overarching evaluation questions were used to guide the evaluation: i) What are the prominent health issues facing residents of Île-à-la-Crosse?; ii) What supports are currently available to help residents address prominent health issues in the community?; iii) What types of barriers do community members face to accessing services to manage their health?; iv) How is health-related information currently shared in the community?; and v) To what extent are health services and information currently managed digitally/electronically? The evaluation questions were kept broad to capture a range of perspectives. An evaluation matrix linking the proposed evaluation questions to their respective sub-questions, indicators, and data collection tools is outlined in Table 1 .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279282.t001

Feedback on each needs assessment topic area is summarized in the sections below. Sample quotes supporting each of the key topic areas is provided in Table 2 .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279282.t002

Key priorities

Four priorities were identified through the focus groups, key informant interviews, and document review ( Fig 2 ). Given the timing of the discussion, the primary issue of concern was the COVID-19 pandemic. Many community members were worried about contracting the virus, and the risk it posed to Elders in the community. Of greater concern, however, was how COVID-19 exacerbated many existing health concerns including diabetes and hypertension in the community. For example, routine procedures were postponed and community members with other health conditions were not receiving routine healthcare during the height of the pandemic. The St. Joseph’s Hospital and Health Centre services Île-à-la-Crosse and bordering communities, hence maintaining capacity for COVID-19 patients was a priority. COVID-19 exposed existing barriers in the healthcare system which are described in greater detail in the barriers to community health section.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279282.g002

Another priority discussed by many community members was climate change and the environment. Community members noted that changes in wildlife patterns, land use, and early winter ice road thaw were areas of concern, particularly due to the impact these factors have on traditional food acquisition practices (i.e., hunting) and food access. For instance, the geographic location of Île-à-la-Crosse is surrounded by a lake, and the main highway which connects the community to the land has experienced increased flooding in the past few years.

In addition to posing immediate danger to community members, food security and sovereignty are also closely linked to road access. While the community produces some of its own food through the local fishery and greenhouses, Île-à-la-Crosse is still dependent on a food supply from the south (i.e., Saskatoon). During COVID-19, food access was further restricted due to limited transport and delivery of food products, which increased the risk of food insecurity for community members. Food insecurity was believed to be of bigger concern for Elders in the community compared to younger members. Younger community members expressed having the ability to source their own food in a variety of capacities (e.g., fishing in the lake), whereas Elders rely more heavily on community resources and support (e.g., grocery stores, friends, and family).

Community members also discussed issues surrounding mental health and wellbeing. This topic was of particular concern for youth and Elders in the community. Community members discussed the importance of identifying covert racism (vs. discrimination) that exists within health services that exacerbated mental health issues and care, as well as developing coping strategies, resilience, and supports to prevent mental health crises. Key informants emphasized the need to minimize the stigma around mental health and focus on holistic wellbeing as they work to develop strategies to improve community wellness.

Community health supports

Île-à-la-Crosse has been working on developing supports to improve community health through various initiatives. A document review identified a community-specific wellness model which has informed program development and planning over the past few years. The key components of the Île-à-la-Crosse wellness model are: i) healthy parenting; ii) healthy youth; iii) healthy communities; iv) Elders; v) healing towards wellness; and vi) food sovereignty. The Elders Lodge in the community provides support for holistic wellbeing by promoting intergenerational knowledge transmission, guidance to youth and community members, as well as land-based activities which improve bonding, cultural awareness, and mental and spiritual well-being among community members. The Elders Lodge hosts both drop-in and organized events.

Several initiatives have been developed to support food sovereignty in the community, including a greenhouse program where fruits and vegetables are grown and shared locally. This program is run in partnership with the school to increase food knowledge and skills among youth. In addition, after-school programs including traditional food education (i.e., cooking classes) and land-based activities (i.e., berry picking) led by Elders support the goals of the wellness model. The community is currently working on developing additional programs dedicated to improving mental wellness among adults, youth, and Elders.

Barriers to community health

When key informants were asked to identify barriers to community health, they described delays in access to timely health information. For example, daily COVID-19 tests conducted at the regional health centre in Île-à-la-Crosse were relayed to the provincial health authority; however, information about the total number of COVID-19 cases could take up to one week to be sent back to the community. This time lag restricted community decision-makers’ ability to enact timely policy (i.e., contact tracing) and rapidly respond to managing cases.

A second barrier that was raised by community members was a delay in access to timely healthcare. The Île-à-la-Crosse hospital is a regional health service centre serving the community as well as surrounding areas. Community members noted that the load often exceeded the capacity of the single hospital, and some patients and procedures were relocated to hospitals and clinics in the larger city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This was reported to be challenging for many community members as it was associated with longer wait times, long commutes, and sometimes required time off work. Many of these challenges were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the pandemic, many medical centres and hospitals postponed routine and elective medical procedures in an attempt to accommodate the overwhelming influx of patients who contracted COVID-19. In addition, community members were advised to avoid spending time in health centres to limit risk of exposure to the virus. These COVID-related changes further delayed access to timely healthcare for many community members of Île-à-la-Crosse.

Several community members reported experiencing institutional racism in healthcare and social service settings outside of Île-à-la-Crosse. This was particularly exacerbated during the COVID-19 movement restrictions, where community members faced significant difficulties in accessing services and care in larger urban centres, and experienced further discrimination due to the stigma of COVID-19-related rumours about communities in the north.

Lastly, community members discussed a lack of awareness about some health topics, including where and how to access reliable health information. Some community members attributed this lack of awareness to a general distrust in government health information due to a history of colonialism and exploitation in Canada, which likely contributed to increased misinformation about COVID-19 risk and spread.

Health communication

The primary modes of communication within Île-à-la-Crosse are radio and social media. These platforms were used throughout the pandemic to communicate health information about COVID-19 case counts and trends. Community members also reported obtaining health information from healthcare practitioners (i.e., for those already visiting a healthcare provider), Elders, and the internet. Key informants indicated an interest in improving digital infrastructure to enable sharing of timely and accurate health information with community members and minimize misinformation. Key informants also reported room for improvement in the community’s digital health infrastructure, particularly in improving timely communication with community members, and to inform decision-making in crisis situations.

Digital infrastructure and connectivity

Île-à-la-Crosse has its own cell tower which offers reliable access to cellular data. The community also has access to internet via the provincial internet provider–SaskTel, as well as a local internet provider—Île-à-la-Crosse Communications Society Inc. Key informants and community members confirmed that most individuals above 13 years of age have access to smartphones, and that these mobile devices are the primary mode of internet access. However, it was unclear whether everyone who owns smartphones also has consistent data plans or home internet connections. Key informants described the great potential of digital devices like smartphones to increase the speed and accuracy of information sharing. Discussions with both key informants and community members suggested the need for a community-specific app or platform which could provide timely health information that was tailored to the community’s needs.

Community members noted that expanding digital infrastructure had to be paired with efforts to improve digital literacy–particularly as it relates to data security, privacy, and online misinformation. A separate initiative was discussed which could work to improve digital literacy among youth and Elders, as this would improve both the uptake of digital health platforms, as well as their usefulness and application. Key informants discussed the importance of building digital infrastructure that would enable data sovereignty, self-governance, and determination. The key informants, who are also primary decision-makers in the community, described opportunities for ethical development of digital platforms that would ensure that data is owned by the community.

Needs assessments are commonly the first step in understanding specific community needs, [ 27 , 28 ]; however, few evaluation frameworks provide practical guidance on how to engage communities in needs assessments [ 41 ]. This paper provides a step-by-step guide for conducting needs assessments in collaboration with communities in the digital age. Using the series of questions outlined in the Guiding Framework, researchers and evaluators can gain an in-depth understanding of a community’s priorities, needs, existing capacity, and relevant solutions.

The Guiding Framework was critical to establishing a partnership with the community of Île-à-la-Crosse, as it enabled the research team to obtain detailed insight into their priorities–in this case, community health–as well as community capacity. Taking a Two-Eyed Seeing approach [ 15 ], conversations with the community highlighted strengths of Western digital technology and the diversity of Indigenous Knowledges for addressing priorities [ 13 ]. This approach was also important to establishing trust and respect for the variety of perspectives that could be used to address community priorities. The resulting partnership also enabled the conceptualization of tangible action items that were aligned with current and future priorities–a key factor in the sustainability and feasibility of community-based initiatives [ 4 – 8 , 54 ].

Challenges and opportunities for using digital platforms for priorities identified by needs assessment

Many rural and remote communities face similar challenges and share common priorities with Île-à-la-Crosse. For example, resource and service access, including food and other essential supplies, healthcare, and internet connectivity are issues faced by many rural and remote communities across Canada [ 55 – 60 ]. Key informants and community members from our partner community corroborated these access issues, particularly in relation to public health. Given the potential for digital technology to bridge access gaps, it has become pertinent to invest in digital infrastructure and platform development.

Research has shown that in many rural and remote communities, smartphone ownership is not the limiting factor–it is internet inequity, which is defined as differential internet access based on wealth, location (urban, rural, or remote), gender, age, or ethnicity [ 61 ]. The United Nations has declared internet access a human right [ 10 ], which makes it imperative to develop digital infrastructure such as internet connectivity to improve digital accessibility. Île-à-la-Crosse has its own cell tower which offers reliable access to cellular data. The community of Île-à-la-Crosse also has access to consistent and dedicated internet service through a provincial internet provider and local internet provider. The needs assessment showed that the universality of smartphone ownership combined with good internet connectivity lays the foundation for the development of tailored, culturally appropriate digital health platforms in communities like Île-à-la-Crosse.

In particular, the needs assessment revealed that smartphone apps, which most citizens are well-versed with, can be used to provide local services and access to resources. For example, a locally developed app can connect the Mayor’s office with community members in real-time to provide updates on COVID-19 outbreaks. Apps also have the potential to connect communities to resources within and outside of the community [ 35 , 57 ]. For example, advanced artificial intelligence algorithms can be used to anticipate community needs prior to urgent crises like COVID-19, environmental disasters, or food crises [ 35 , 62 – 65 ]. To date, the issue has not been the lack of technology or ability to bridge this gap for rural and remote communities. Instead, larger systemic inequities have limited our ability to co-create local solutions for global problems by decentralizing technology that is widely available [ 35 , 66 ], which highlights upstream inequities in developing digital platforms.

Recommendations for inclusive digital needs assessments

Given the widespread adoption of digital technology, digital platforms can provide rich data to identify and address community crises [ 2 , 3 , 35 ]. Importantly, co-created digital platforms can be used to share knowledge in real-time with community members and other stakeholders to enable remote engagement, which is especially important during crisis situations such as a pandemic [ 2 , 3 , 35 ]. As we implement creative digital platforms in varied programs or research projects, we must also integrate this digital perspective into the evaluation process. Research and evaluation literature has well established approaches to needs assessment evaluations [ 29 , 42 , 67 ]; however, in the 21st century, we need to account for the use and application of digital platforms in community-focused initiatives. To identify how and where digital platforms can play a role in addressing community priorities, we propose several recommendations for inclusive community-based needs assessments.

First, at the crux of all community-based needs assessments is relationships. A relationship built on respect, reciprocity, mutual understanding, and prioritizing the needs and vision of communities is essential for sustainable impact. The First Nations OCAP® principles [ 68 ] informed conversations between the research team and community about data ownership and control. These principles include ownership of knowledge and data, control over all aspects of research, access to information about one’s own community, and possession or control of data [ 68 ]. The OCAP® principles ensure First Nations and other Indigenous Peoples the right to their own information, and also reflect commitments to use and share information in a way that maximizes the benefit to a community, while minimizing harm. Some communities may choose to lead a project, or work closely in collaboration with experts for specific projects. Irrespective of the project dynamics, needs assessments rely on detailed information and context about a community for a project to succeed.

Second, it is important for researchers and evaluators to gain an understanding of the current digital infrastructure and connectivity in the community. The needs assessment framework ( Fig 1 ) includes relevant questions for identifying data and WIFI access in a community, penetration of digital devices, and existing digital infrastructure. Even for community-based initiatives that are not focused on a digital platforms, digital technologies will inevitably be a part of the solution, a barrier, or both. Hence the digital landscape has become part of the context that we must capture and understand in a needs assessment to better design and develop programming, policies, and other initiatives.

Third, it is important to ask the question of where and how a digital tool or platform could help. Are there gaps that digital platforms can help address or fill? In rural and remote communities, in particular, digital platforms can provide access to real-time information and services not otherwise available. For example, Telehealth [ 69 , 70 ] in the Canadian north offers citizens access to essential healthcare services, including video appointments with medical specialists. Prior to Telehealth, many residents would need to fly into bigger cities in the nearest province to access health care [ 55 ].

Lastly, an understanding of the broader context which affects a community’s ability to adopt digital platforms is critical to the success of digital initiatives. This includes, but is not limited to, capturing data on socioeconomic status and the accessibility of internet-connected digital devices. Digital platforms should help to bridge the divide in resource, service, and information access–not widen the gap. For some communities, this may require working on building digital infrastructure and obtaining dedicated funds to expand access prior to implementing digital initiatives. In addition, digital literacy cannot be taken for granted. Digital literacy refers to individuals’ ability to not only use digital devices, but according to Eshet-Alkalai [ 71 ], “includes a large variety of complex cognitive, motor, sociological, and emotional skills, which users need in order to function effectively in digital environments.” In its simplest form, digital literacy may include the ability to navigate digital platforms, download apps, and communicate electronically. Other more specific skills include ability to read and understand instructions, terms and services, as well as data privacy and security statements [ 72 – 74 ] As part of a needs assessment, identifying digital literacy within a community is an important step to safe, ethical, and relevant digital tool development.

Considering the challenges, immense potential, and learnings from applying the Guiding Framework, a tailored digital platform was conceptualized called Sakitawak Health.

Development of Sakitawak Health

Sakitawak Health is a culturally-responsive digital epidemiological platform to monitor, mitigate, and manage COVID-19 outbreaks. The needs assessment concluded that digital platforms can be used for emerging or other existing population health crises within Île-à-la-Crosse and potentially other Indigenous communities. Moreover, to co-create digital platforms, the Île-à-la-Crosse Citizen Scientist Advisory Council identified key features to embed in CO-Away, including free virtual care for citizens via a smartphone app at the frontend, and access to anonymized community data on the backend for decision-makers.

The app will provide three key precision medicine services that are specific to each citizen: 1) continuous risk assessment of COVID-19 infection; 2) evidence-based public health communication; and 3) citizen reporting of food availability, access to public services, and COVID-19 symptoms and test results. These culturally-responsive features have been co-created with Métis decision-makers in Île-à-la-Crosse based on imminent community needs and preferences. CO-Away will enable real-time data collection through continuous citizen engagement to inform municipal jurisdictional policies.

There are three guiding principles for developing Sakitawak Health: I) Citizen empowerment and data ownership: Active engagement is enabled through app features such as visualizing community risk. More importantly, the community owns the data to ensure data sovereignty; II) Privacy: Utilizing a cutting-edge methodology called federated machine learning, we will develop artificial intelligence algorithms that stores sensitive data such as participant location on mobile devices itself (i.e., sensitive data are not stored in external servers); III) Security and scalability: The backend server will be located in Cloud in Canada, which allows for horizontal and vertical scalability (i.e., the potential for developing multiple frontend apps and decision-making dashboards).

Recognizing the importance of data sovereignty and Indigenous self-governance

Data sovereignty and social justice are important aspects of community-based work, particularly for communities that have experienced discrimination or systemic inequities [ 2 , 75 ]. Data sovereignty refers to meaningful control and ownership of one’s data [ 76 ]. For Indigenous communities in Canada, self-determination and self-governance are of paramount importance given the colonial history of oppression, trauma, and disenfranchisement [ 77 ], and data sovereignty and ownership of digital platforms can promote that independence. In conducting digital community-based needs assessments, the application of a Two-Eyed Seeing lens enables us to leverage strengths of both Indigenous and Western Ways of Knowing to help focus on key priorities and develop solutions.

The engagement and overall approach to working with the community of Île-à-la-Crosse applied a Two-Eyed Seeing lens. In the needs assessment with Île-à-la-Crosse, Two-Eyed Seeing involved incorporation of Métis Knowledge during team engagements, which ensured that any digital platforms developed would incorporate Indigenous Knowledge to promote data sovereignty. All priorities identified within this manuscript are a result of direct Indigenous Knowledge that was provided by the Council. Indigenous Knowledge is not limited to the knowledge of Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers; however, they play a critical role in guiding that knowledge through by providing historical, geographic, and cultural context. Discussions with Île-à-la-Crosse about data sovereignty centered around citizen ownership of data, community access, and ensuring data privacy and security. The ultimate goal of this approach to data sovereignty is to facilitate decreased dependence on external systems and use digital solutions for Indigenous self-determination and self-governance.

The needs assessment represents the first phase of a larger evaluation strategy to develop and implement culturally appropriate digital platforms for community health. Phase 1 involved identifying core health priorities and desired supports in the community of Île-à-la-Crosse. Based on the needs assessment findings, Phase 2 of this project will involve the development of tailored digital health platforms and programming to support digital literacy. As part of Phase 2, digital literacy programs and tailored digital health platforms will be pilot tested and adapted prior to their implementation. In Phase 3, a process evaluation will be conducted to assess the reach, uptake, and use of digital health platforms and digital literacy programming. Integrated knowledge translation will be conducted during all phases to ensure continuous feedback, communication, and knowledge sharing with all relevant stakeholder groups.

Conclusions

Needs assessments can facilitate important conversations in community-based research and evaluation to learn about key priorities, challenges, and opportunities for growth. The Guiding Framework for Community-Based Needs Assessments to Embed Digital Platforms details a step-by-step approach to begin a conversation with communities to better understand their needs, and to tailor research and evaluation projects focused on embedding digital platforms. In Île-à-la-Crosse, the needs assessment framework has propelled the launch of a timely, community-engaged digital initiative to address key priorities, starting with COVID-19. Overall, tailored platforms can help bridge existing gaps in resource, program, and service access in Indigenous communities, irrespective of their location across the world.

Supporting information

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279282.s001

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of community members of Île-à-la-Crosse. The Elders, youth, and key decision-makers who are part of the Île-à-la-Crosse Citizen Scientist Advisory Council have been invaluable in providing support, guidance, and cultural training to the research team. The authors also acknowledge the support of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority in advancing the uptake of digital health applications.

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Empowering students to develop research skills

February 8, 2021

This post is republished from   Into Practice ,  a biweekly communication of Harvard’s  Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning

Terence D. Capellini, Richard B Wolf Associate Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, empowers students to grow as researchers in his Building the Human Body course through a comprehensive, course-long collaborative project that works to understand the changes in the genome that make the human skeleton unique. For instance, of the many types of projects, some focus on the genetic basis of why human beings walk on two legs. This integrative “Evo-Devo” project demands high levels of understanding of biology and genetics that students gain in the first half of class, which is then applied hands-on in the second half of class. Students work in teams of 2-3 to collect their own morphology data by measuring skeletons at the Harvard Museum of Natural History and leverage statistics to understand patterns in their data. They then collect and analyze DNA sequences from humans and other animals to identify the DNA changes that may encode morphology. Throughout this course, students go from sometimes having “limited experience in genetics and/or morphology” to conducting their own independent research. This project culminates in a team presentation and a final research paper.

The benefits: Students develop the methodological skills required to collect and analyze morphological data. Using the UCSC Genome browser  and other tools, students sharpen their analytical skills to visualize genomics data and pinpoint meaningful genetic changes. Conducting this work in teams means students develop collaborative skills that model academic biology labs outside class, and some student projects have contributed to published papers in the field. “Every year, I have one student, if not two, join my lab to work on projects developed from class to try to get them published.”

“The beauty of this class is that the students are asking a question that’s never been asked before and they’re actually collecting data to get at an answer.”

The challenges:  Capellini observes that the most common challenge faced by students in the course is when “they have a really terrific question they want to explore, but the necessary background information is simply lacking. It is simply amazing how little we do know about human development, despite its hundreds of years of study.” Sometimes, for instance, students want to learn about the evolution, development, and genetics of a certain body part, but it is still somewhat a mystery to the field. In these cases, the teaching team (including co-instructor Dr. Neil Roach) tries to find datasets that are maximally relevant to the questions the students want to explore. Capellini also notes that the work in his class is demanding and hard, just by the nature of the work, but students “always step up and perform” and the teaching team does their best to “make it fun” and ensure they nurture students’ curiosities and questions.

Takeaways and best practices

• Incorporate previous students’ work into the course. Capellini intentionally discusses findings from previous student groups in lectures. “They’re developing real findings and we share that when we explain the project for the next groups.” Capellini also invites students to share their own progress and findings as part of class discussion, which helps them participate as independent researchers and receive feedback from their peers.
• Assign groups intentionally.  Maintaining flexibility allows the teaching team to be more responsive to students’ various needs and interests. Capellini will often place graduate students by themselves to enhance their workload and give them training directly relevant to their future thesis work. Undergraduates are able to self-select into groups or can be assigned based on shared interests. “If two people are enthusiastic about examining the knee, for instance, we’ll match them together.”
• Consider using multiple types of assessments.  Capellini notes that exams and quizzes are administered in the first half of the course and scaffolded so that students can practice the skills they need to successfully apply course material in the final project. “Lots of the initial examples are hypothetical,” he explains, even grounded in fiction and pop culture references, “but [students] have to eventually apply the skills they learned in addressing the hypothetical example to their own real example and the data they generate” for the Evo-Devo project. This is coupled with a paper and a presentation treated like a conference talk.

Bottom line:  Capellini’s top advice for professors looking to help their own students grow as researchers is to ensure research projects are designed with intentionality and fully integrated into the syllabus. “You can’t simply tack it on at the end,” he underscores. “If you want this research project to be a substantive learning opportunity, it has to happen from Day 1.” That includes carving out time in class for students to work on it and make the connections they need to conduct research. “Listen to your students and learn about them personally” so you can tap into what they’re excited about. Have some fun in the course, and they’ll be motivated to do the work.

Seven Steps for Conducting a Successful Needs Assessment

When launching a public health program, one of the first things to do is conduct a needs assessment. A needs assessment helps you determine what needs to be accomplished to reach your project goals . This assessment of needs then informs a project’s overall plan and approaches by helping you identify targeted strategies and prioritize resources.

Needs assessments serve as incredibly powerful tools for decision making, resource allocation, and ultimately reaching programmatic goals. They can be utilized across a range of settings (e.g., community, school, hospital, state) to shed light on a variety of topics, such as what programmatic actions should be taken to improve breastfeeding rates in a hospital or increase kindergarten readiness across a state. It's important to conduct needs assessment at the onset of the project, so that programs are appropriately tailored to the individuals and communities you serve.

Not sure where to begin? To help you get started, we've compiled the seven tips below. Following them will ensure that your needs assessment planning, analysis, and subsequent actions are efficient and effective.

Step one: Clearly define your needs assessment objectives

When defining your objectives, ask yourself: Why are you conducting the needs assessment and what do you plan to do with the findings? For example, if you are working on a program seeking to increase breastfeeding initiation among first-time mothers in a community, your needs assessment objectives may include:

• Understand breastfeeding knowledge and intentions of first-time mothers in your community
• Understand perceived assets and barriers to breastfeeding among first-time mothers in your community
• Assess assets and barriers related to the provision of breastfeeding support in local hospitals and after discharge
• Determine necessary training and supports to increase breastfeeding among first-time mothers in your community

Concretely identifying a few, key objectives at the onset will help you identify your needs assessment activities—including who to collect data from and what questions to ask. The objectives in the breastfeeding example show that the needs assessment should collect data from first-time mothers as well as from health care providers and, possibly, lactation consultants and social service providers in the community. The objectives also suggest that survey and/or focus group questions should target topics including, but not limited to, knowledge, intentions, assets, and barriers related to breastfeeding.

Step two: Be realistic about your resources and capacity

Consider how much time, money and staff capacity you can devote to the needs assessment. For example, do you need to assess the current state of your program and implement changes within three months, or do you have an entire year to examine your program’s landscape? Also, how many staff are working on the project and what percentage of their time are they devoting to the project? The availability of resources will greatly impact the needs assessment activities you are able to conduct.  If a needs assessment must be conducted quickly and/or with few staff resources, a simple online survey to key stakeholders serves as a powerful (and often free!) tool to collect data critical to informing programmatic efforts. Teams can also tap into secondary publicly available data, such as the National Survey of Children’s Health or the CDC WONDER databases. 

Step three: Identify target audiences and data sources

Given your objectives and resources, consider the target audiences and data sources that will help you assess your needs. Is it most effective to administer a survey to a wide range of community members, to hold several focus groups with hospital administrators, examine existing reports, or directly observe project participants? Sometimes you’ll need to conduct several, complementary needs assessment activities to collect data for a range of stakeholders.

Consider, also, the competing priorities of your target audience and how to encourage them to participate in your needs assessment. If sending surveys, include an introductory sentence that shows your appreciation and why the survey responses matter, and be prepared to send multiple reminders to increase response rates. If conducting focus groups, be gracious and consider providing snacks, water, or other incentives to participants to thank them for their time and contributions. Helpful new tools can also increase participation. Photovoice is a tool that helps people use videos and photos to share their environment and experiences with others, which can then inform the needs assessment. This tool can be especially powerful for engaging communities that may have been less likely to participate due to language barriers, poverty, or other social determinants.

Step four: Think small and big when summarizing results

You’ve collected the necessary data to achieve your needs assessment objectives. Now, it’s time to dig into that data. Try to summarize and reflect on data for each of your needs assessment objectives individually. Depending on the nature of your data, you may want to develop graphs, tables, and other visuals to display data as well as a narrative describing results.

Then, take a step back, and think about cross-cutting themes that may apply to multiple needs assessment activities, which may help inform priorities for action. For example, in the breastfeeding program example, was there a salient theme, perhaps a barrier to breastfeeding initiation, that emerged when collecting insights from first-time mothers, health care providers, and other social service providers? If so, highlight this finding and ensure recommendations address this cross-cutting theme.

Step five: Get feedback

While developing the needs assessment deliverable, whether it is a formal report, peer-reviewed manuscript or presentation, discuss results with a diverse and inclusive audience—including community members, colleagues, funders, project partners and other target audiences—who may interpret your needs assessment results differently and identify unique recommendations. From an equity standpoint, it is especially important to engage community members as equal partners in understanding and translating results from the needs assessment. This ensures that the people most affected by the program will have power in determining its design.

Step six: Disseminate

You’ve done the work, now share your findings internally and externally. This helps ensure that all project stakeholders are on the same page regarding project priorities and resource allocation. Present your findings at community events, professional conferences and other relevant venues. Your efforts may inform and inspire other public health programs working on similar initiatives, and feedback from others can help you move your work to the next level.

Step seven: Take action

At the conclusion of the needs assessment process, review your original objectives with the final results and recommendations. Doing so will highlight what steps are needed to achieve your goals—whether that’s addressing gaps in knowledge or building capacity among project participants. Then, most importantly, take action and use those findings to develop your project approaches. To ensure that your needs assessment learnings come to fruition, consider developing a workplan that outlines key approaches and strategies, and identifies a team lead and deadline for each

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What are research skills?

Last updated

26 April 2023

Reviewed by

Broadly, it includes a range of talents required to:

Find useful information

Perform critical analysis

Form hypotheses

Solve problems

It also includes processes such as time management, communication, and reporting skills to achieve those ends.

Research requires a blend of conceptual and detail-oriented modes of thinking. It tests one's ability to transition between subjective motivations and objective assessments to ensure only correct data fits into a meaningfully useful framework.

As countless fields increasingly rely on data management and analysis, polishing your research skills is an important, near-universal way to improve your potential of getting hired and advancing in your career.

Make research less tedious

Dovetail streamlines research to help you uncover and share actionable insights

What are basic research skills?

Almost any research involves some proportion of the following fundamental skills:

Organization

Decision-making

Investigation and analysis

Creative thinking

What are primary research skills?

The following are some of the most universally important research skills that will help you in a wide range of positions:

Time management — From planning and organization to task prioritization and deadline management, time-management skills are highly in-demand workplace skills.

Problem-solving — Identifying issues, their causes, and key solutions are another essential suite of research skills.

Critical thinking — The ability to make connections between data points with clear reasoning is essential to navigate data and extract what's useful towards the original objective.

Communication — In any collaborative environment, team-building and active listening will help researchers convey findings more effectively through data summarizations and report writing.

What are the most important skills in research?

Detail-oriented procedures are essential to research, which allow researchers and their audience to probe deeper into a subject and make connections they otherwise may have missed with generic overviews.

Maintaining priorities is also essential so that details fit within an overarching strategy. Lastly, decision-making is crucial because that's the only way research is translated into meaningful action.

• Why are research skills important?

Good research skills are crucial to learning more about a subject, then using that knowledge to improve an organization's capabilities. Synthesizing that research and conveying it clearly is also important, as employees seek to share useful insights and inspire effective actions.

Effective research skills are essential for those seeking to:

Analyze their target market

Investigate industry trends

Identify customer needs

Detect obstacles

Find solutions to those obstacles

Develop new products or services

Develop new, adaptive ways to meet demands

Discover more efficient ways of acquiring or using resources

Why do we need research skills?

Businesses and individuals alike need research skills to clarify their role in the marketplace, which of course, requires clarity on the market in which they function in. High-quality research helps people stay better prepared for challenges by identifying key factors involved in their day-to-day operations, along with those that might play a significant role in future goals.

• Benefits of having research skills

Research skills increase the effectiveness of any role that's dependent on information. Both individually and organization-wide, good research simplifies what can otherwise be unwieldy amounts of data. It can help maintain order by organizing information and improving efficiency, both of which set the stage for improved revenue growth.

Those with highly effective research skills can help reveal both:

Opportunities for improvement

Brand-new or previously unseen opportunities

Research skills can then help identify how to best take advantage of available opportunities. With today's increasingly data-driven economy, it will also increase your potential of getting hired and help position organizations as thought leaders in their marketplace.

• Research skills examples

Being necessarily broad, research skills encompass many sub-categories of skillsets required to extrapolate meaning and direction from dense informational resources. Identifying, interpreting, and applying research are several such subcategories—but to be specific, workplaces of almost any type have some need of:

Searching for information

Attention to detail

Taking notes

Problem-solving

Communicating results

Time management

• How to improve your research skills

Whether your research goals are to learn more about a subject or enhance workflows, you can improve research skills with this failsafe, four-step strategy:

Make an outline, and set your intention(s)

Know your sources

Learn to use advanced search techniques

Practice, practice, practice (and don't be afraid to adjust your approach)

These steps could manifest themselves in many ways, but what's most important is that it results in measurable progress toward the original goals that compelled you to research a subject.

• Using research skills at work

Different research skills will be emphasized over others, depending on the nature of your trade. To use research most effectively, concentrate on improving research skills most relevant to your position—or, if working solo, the skills most likely have the strongest impact on your goals.

You might divide the necessary research skills into categories for short, medium, and long-term goals or according to each activity your position requires. That way, when a challenge arises in your workflow, it's clearer which specific research skill requires dedicated attention.

How can I learn research skills?

Learning research skills can be done with a simple three-point framework:

Clarify the objective — Before delving into potentially overwhelming amounts of data, take a moment to define the purpose of your research. If at any point you lose sight of the original objective, take another moment to ask how you could adjust your approach to better fit the original objective.

Scrutinize sources — Cross-reference data with other sources, paying close attention to each author's credentials and motivations.

Organize research — Establish and continually refine a data-organization system that works for you. This could be an index of resources or compiling data under different categories designed for easy access.

Which careers require research skills?

Especially in today's world, most careers require some, if not extensive, research. Developers, marketers, and others dealing in primarily digital properties especially require extensive research skills—but it's just as important in building and manufacturing industries, where research is crucial to construct products correctly and safely.

Engineering, legal, medical, and literally any other specialized field will require excellent research skills. Truly, almost any career path will involve some level of research skills; and even those requiring only minimal research skills will at least require research to find and compare open positions in the first place.

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Quantitative needs assessment tools for people with mental health problems: a systematic scoping review

• Open access
• Published: 12 March 2024

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• Irena Makivić   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2748-5522 1 ,
• Anja Kragelj 1 &
• Antonio Lasalvia   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9963-6081 2  

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Needs assessment in mental health is a complex and multifaceted process that involves different steps, from assessing mental health needs at the population or individual level to assessing the different needs of individuals or groups of people. This review focuses on quantitative needs assessment tools for people with mental health problems. Our aim was to find all possible tools that can be used to assess different needs within different populations, according to their diverse uses. A comprehensive literature search with the Boolean operators “Mental health” AND “Needs assessment” was conducted in the PubMed and PsychINFO electronic databases. The search was performed with the inclusion of all results without time or other limits. Only papers addressing quantitative studies on needs assessment in people with mental health problems were included. Additional articles were added through a review of previous review articles that focused on a narrower range of such needs and their assessment. Twenty-nine different need-assessment tools specifically designed for people with mental health problems were found. Some tools can only be used by professionals, some by patients, some even by caregivers, or a combination of all three. Within each recognized tool, there are different fields of needs, so they can be used for different purposes within the needs assessment process, according to the final research or clinical aims. The added value of this review is that the retrieved tools can be used for assessment at the individual level, research purposes or evaluation at the outcome level. Therefore, best needs assessment tool can be chosen based on the specific goals or focus of the related needs assessment.

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Mental disorders are the largest contributor to the disease burden in Europe (Wykes et al., 2021 ), and mortality related to such conditions increases the overall economic burden (McGorry & Hamilton, 2016 ). Mental disorders affect various life domains, from physical health to daily living, friends, family situations, and education, and are associated with greater unemployment and economic problems (Wykes et al., 2021 ).

In order to plan and carry out successful mental health care, it is necessary to have a good mental health information system that also includes data about related needs (Wykes et al., 2021 ). When a need is identified, an action can be (re)organized to address it. Such action, based on the needs identified by the affected individuals, professionals or society, results in either satisfaction or dissatisfaction if the needs continue to be present (Endacott, 1997 ). Assessing needs might also be used to assess the adequacy and prioritization of mental health services at the population level (Ashaye et al., 2003 ; Hamid et al., 2009 ) as well as for the evaluation of mental health care (Hamid et al., 2009 ).

When considering mental health, a need represents a gap between what is and what should be (Witkin & Altschuld, 1995 ), and any changes that are made to the system should thus work to reduce this gap. There are various definitions of both “need” and “assessment” (Royse & Drude, 1982 ). Kahn (1969) considered needs from a social perspective to represent what someone requires in a broader bio-psycho-social context to be able to fully and productively participate in a social process (Royse & Drude, 1982 ). Brewin conceptualised needs (Lesage, 2017 ) as assessing what kind of social disability an individual has for professionals to be able to use an adequate model of care. Disability in this context is the result of interactions between people and the environment, and thus a disability can be seen as a lack of appropriate care models in relation to recognized needs. The concept of “need” in mental health care may be defined according to different points of view: a “normative need” is defined by professionals, while a “felt need” is what people with mental health problems experience and ask to be met (Endacott, 1997 ). What patients request and what they really need may differ, as they can only get what is available and provided at the system level, and what is the most beneficial for them in the current situation. Moreover, what they ask for is not always feasible. However, according to Bradshaw, what an individual requests is important and should be considered as felt needs (Endacott, 1997 ). Bearing in mind Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, only a combination of assessments from different points of view can provide a comprehensive needs assessment: needs assessed at the individual level from service users, their family members, caregivers, practitioners, and other professionals (Endacott, 1997 ). Indicators of needs at the individual level include functioning on different levels, symptoms, diagnoses, quality of life and, access to services (Aoun et al., 2004 ). Patient-centredness is vital to ensure the highest quality of care through monitoring performance (Kilbourne et al., 2018 ). Taking into account the patients’ perspective is also important to assess needs correctly, since such an assessment is more than just the professionals’ perception. An assessment of needs, as Thornicroft ( 1991 ) pointed out, provides care in the community with an emphasis on the provider-user relationship as a key component through which effective care is organized (Carter et al., 1995 ). According to Slade ( 1994 ), the concept of a need in mental health has no single correct definition, but it should rather be seen s a “socially-negotiated concept” (Thornicroft & Slade, 2002 ). Additionally, needs have to be assessed through the bio-psycho-social model (Makivić & Klemenc-Ketiš, 2022 ), including not just medical needs but also a wide array of social needs.

Initially, the assessment of needs (Balacki, 1988 ) in the community was seen as an approach using different forms of analysis to gain insights into the use of services, characteristics of people, incidence and prevalence rates and indicators to recognize crucial determinants that lead to the worsening of mental health. The assessment of mental health needs in Western societies began in 1775 with the analysis of public health data contained in the case registers (Royse & Drude, 1982 ). In the mid-1970s, with the beginning of the transition to care for mental health in the community (and the launch of community mental health service organizations), needs assessment was required within the evaluation process to help meet the patients’ needs. Needs assessment also represents a crucial part of mental health planning (Royse & Drude, 1982 ), where different needs must be considered, especially those felt by individuals. At the end of seventies, Kimmel pointed out that this area of needs assessment had no systematic procedures (Royse & Drude, 1982 ). However, several mental health needs assessment tools have been developed over the last thirty years.

The MRC Needs for Care Assessment (NFCAS) (by Brewin, 1987) was the first attempt to introduce a standardized assessment of the needs of the severely mentally ill (Lesage, 2017 ). Subsequently, a reduced version of the instrument applicable to common mental disorders was developed – i.e., the Needs for Care Assessment Schedule-Community version (NFCAS-C) (Bebbington et al., 1996 ). The shortened version of NFCAS was the Cardinal Needs Schedule (CNS), which is used to assess needs to address them with appropriate interventions (Marshall et al., 1995 ). Later the self-administered Perceived Needs for Care Questionnaire (PNCQ) was developed for use at the population level (Meadows et al., 2000 ), while in 1995 the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN) (Phelan et al., 1995 ) was published. After this time the focus shifted more to people-centred approaches, and therefore the assessment of needs also moved beyond psychiatric symptomatology to bring in “consumers”, i.e. patients and their caregivers. Other scales have also been used as needs assessment tools, such as the HoNOS scale (Joska & Flisher, 2005 ) which was designed to evaluate the clinical and social outcomes of mental health care.

Needs assessment is not always a clear and straightforward process with one approach and one goal. Therefore, different tools and approaches may be used to assess needs from different perspectives at different levels and with the help of different tools. The problem with using different techniques is that there is a lack of comparability and a consequent danger of not using the needs assessment outcome data as intended (Stewart, 1979 ); thus, it is important to have a good overview of the available tools.

To the best of our knowledge, only six reviews on needs assessment in people with mental health problems have been published to date (Davies et al., 2018 , 2019 ; Dobrzyńska et al., 2008b ; Joska & Flisher, 2005 ; Keulen-de Vos & Schepers, 2016 ; Lasalvia et al., 2000b ). Four additional reviews focused on the general needs or general health needs of people without mental health problems (Asadi-Lari & Gray, 2005 ; Carvacho et al., 2021 ; Lasalvia et al., 2000a ; Ravaghi et al., 2023 ), which was not focus group of our review. Finally, another article was considered inadequate for this study’s purposes, as it was published in Polish (as the one above) and is not a review paper (Dobrzyńska et al., 2008a ). None of the reviews published thus far have focused on the different assessment tools available for assessing the needs of people with different mental disorders. To date, no study has attempted to review all the available published studies on the various needs assessment processes to systematize the topic. The reviews mentioned above deal with only one specific population (patients with first-episode psychosis; forensic patients), or with specific needs (need for mental health services, supportive care needs, or individual needs for care). Thus, this study aimed to review all studies addressing needs assessment tools specifically designed for people with mental health problems, regardless of their diagnoses. The added value of this study is especially because of its wholeness in presenting different tools that can be used on different populations and by different groups. Thus this study may serve as a framework for starting different needs-assessment processes.

Search strategy

A comprehensive literature search using the Boolean operators “Mental health” AND “Needs assessment” was conducted in electronic bibliographic databases PubMed [Needs Assessment (Mesh Terms) AND Mental Health (Mesh Terms); Mental Health (Title/Abstract) AND Needs assessment (Title/Abstract);] and PsychINFO [Needs assessment AND Mental health in keywords; Needs assessment AND Mental health in Title; Needs assessment AND Mental health in Abstract]. Searching was carried out with the inclusion of all results without time or other limits in August 2021. The search strategy was based on the needs from a clinical context as well as some research priorities in the field of mental health. After the first systematic search we collected additional papers with an overview of six review articles (Davies et al., 2018 , 2019 ; Dobrzyńska et al., 2008b ; Joska & Flisher, 2005 ; Keulen-de Vos & Schepers, 2016 ; Lasalvia et al., 2000b ) and their results, and by searching PubMed within all connected articles. This was important since keywords changed over all this broad timeframe.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Our research exclusively focused on quantitative studies. We thus excluded all theoretical/conceptual articles, editorials, books, book commentaries or dissertations. Studies assessing the needs of patients with dementia and groups of people with physical and psychological disabilities were also excluded. We did not include papers related to 1) only general health (care), 2) other needs of the general population, 3) screening, prevalence, general diagnostic tools, and 4) tools for assessing caregivers’ needs. All those steps were done comprehensively by two researchers (IM, AK) independently. When there was a disagreement on the inclusion or exclusion of an article, both researchers looked at it again before reaching a consensus. We then manually added all relevant articles that could have been missed during the electronic search. We added articles that were cited within or were related with all the six mentioned reviews, but were not yet retrieved in the first search. These review articles were not included in the final number of all the articles examined in this study with the aim of exploring the different tools used for needs assessment of people with mental health problems. The aim of this process is to first obtain an overview of all the tools available, as this will make it possible to better use them within clinical settings, as well as for research and development purposes in order to plan a system or intervention that addresses the recognized needs (Fig.  1 ).

Concept of patient-centred care based on needs

Scoping studies, as Arksey and O'Malley ( 2005 ) mentioned, follow five steps, which we also took into consideration. First (step one) we identified the research question, which was “What are all different needs assessment tools that have been used in the population of people with mental health problems within different studies”. We then identified the relevant studies within recognised databases, as well as manually searching and adding the relevant articles (step two). We selected the appropriate studies (step three) as described within the search strategy process, with all inclusion and exclusion criteria. Finally, we presented the results (step four) in the chart flow in Fig.  2 , and Tables  1 , 2 and 3 , which corresponds to the concept of patient-centred care based on needs (Fig.  1 ). Because our focus was on different tools, we prepared the tables accordingly. There was no other relevant information in the original 242 articles to be presented at this occasion, other than those about the usage of different needs assessment tools, as this was the goal of the scoping review. The presentation of the results is based on the use of all recognized needs assessment tools, since geographical studies have been presented elsewhere (Makivić & Kragelj, 2023 ).

Research process within the databases

The analysis was multi-structured to provide an overview of all the recognized tools and the related time trends, country use and population of the most frequently used assessment methods.

The study selection process is shown in Fig.  2 . PubMed provided 578 records within the Mesh search and 537 within the title/abstract search, with after duplicates were removed this gave 1,090 results. Searching in PsychINFO provided 650 results from a search within the Abstract, 232 within Keywords and 1450 within Title; after combining these and removing duplicates, a total of 1,548 results were obtained.

The first selection was made within the final database (n = 2,638) by reading the abstracts and excluding all studies covering topics not relevant for this review. After this was completed, 166 articles remained. These were reviews and research articles covering the needs assessment of people with mental disorders (MD). After this, we eliminated review articles (n = 6) and used them for additional search to manually add all relevant articles that could have been missed during the electronic search, mainly because of the use of different keywords. Specifically, we added the articles that were cited within or were related to all the six mentioned reviews, but were not found in the first search (n = 82). After this process, a total of 242 articles were included in the final review.

Most studies addressing needs assessment tools retrieved with both electronic and manual searches were published in English (n = 231), although some were published in German (n = 3), Spanish (n = 3), and Italian (n = 2). Only one article each was published in Dutch, French and Turkish. Regarding the geographical distribution, most studies were published from European groups (n = 163), while 43 studies were conducted in America, 22 in Australia or New Zealand, 11 in Asia and only three in Africa. Some of the studies were published in collaboration among researchers from different countries. Regarding the publication period, the first studies on this issue were published in 1978, 52.9% of the studies were published from 2000 to 2012, and 66.1% had been published further by 2016.

Through the search performed in this study we found 29 different needs assessment tools, as shown in Table  1 in alphabetical order. We have made and additional search in order to find original sources and the information about the validation. Original sources for each of the recognized tools are listed in Supplementary information ( SI 1 ). Some tools, additional to those 29, were developed for the purposes of a single research study and its specific aims and the information about the validation were not available (n = 11), and thus we eliminated those tools at this point, although they will later be presented elsewhere in another study.

The retrieved tools and their respective constructs of need are presented in Table  2 . The various needs assessment tools are listed in alphabetical order. The tools are presented with regard to (1) who can answer the scale, (2) who the target population is, and (3) the domains addressed. Table 2 provides information on the various needs assessment tools, listed in alphabetical order. The tools are presented with regard to (1) who can answer the scale, (2) who the target population is, and (3) the domains addressed.

Service needs (Hamid et al., 2009 ) are defined as care requirements for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. These needs can either be assessed by waiting lists or by only asking a simple question (e.g. “Do you think that you require any professional mental health services?”) along with the screening for mental and physical health problems (Yu et al., 2019 ) or social problems, with the help of the tools listed below. Moreover, there are different bio-psycho-social needs that are related to various mental health, physical health, and quality of life factors, as well as personal interests or abilities and social factors (Keulen-de Vos & Schepers, 2016 ), and these can be measured for different purposes. Social needs can be assessed by tools such as the Social Behavioral Schedule or REHAB Schedules, and therefore the need for rehabilitation can also be assessed (Hamid et al., 2009 ) using the comprehensive tools mentioned in our review.

Most of the needs assessment tools were self-completed by the patients (n = 85), completed by professionals (n = 41), or by combination of both (n = 78). Some tools were also completed by the patients and their caregivers (n = 12) or by the patients, caregivers, and professionals at the same time (n = 12). There were few studies where the researchers completed the needs assessment tool (n = 5). The majority of the tools were developed for assessing needs in an adult population with mental health problems (n = 193), either with severe mental disorders or with some other mental health diagnosis. Seventeen studies focused on an elderly population with mental health problems, and six on children with mental health problems. Some needs assessment tools for specific populations were found, such as tools for assessing the needs of forensic patients with mental health problems (n = 18), homeless people and migrants with a mental health diagnosis (n = 4), and mothers or pregnant women with a severe mental disorder (n = 1). In some studies, there was a combination of all these different populations and even people without a diagnosis, which we assigned to each of the mentioned groups.

In the second Supplementary information ( SI 2 ) there are reported the studies found in the literature search that used recognized needs assessment tools (n = 227). In this presentation some of the studies are not presented, namely those without validated tools (n = 11) as already mentioned and all articles using mentioned three different models (n = 4). In some studies, more tools have been used and in this case the study is counted within each tool in the total number of studies. Among the different needs-assessment tool, the CAN is mentioned as the most frequently used scale and, to the best of our knowledge, it has the highest number of different versions. The tools are presented based on their frequency of recognized use within this scoping review, from the most frequent to the least.

The recognized tools can be used in different contexts. Table 3 , groups the needs assessment tools according to their use at the care, research, and system levels.

This scoping review addressed all the published needs assessment tools specifically designed for use in mental health field. Nevertheless, some of the reviewed tools had also been used on the populations without a mental health diagnosis (Carvacho et al., 2021 ). Overall, we found twenty-nine different tools measuring needs in various mental health populations. The list of authors of the originally developed scales mentioned below are provided in the Supplementary information ( SI 1 ).

The reviewed literature highlights that the majority of needs assessment tools have been developed and used in Europe as the adoption of a community psychiatry model is relatively more widespread in this region than in other world regions; some tools, however, have been also used in America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Some scales had been developed with the aim to simplify or shorten previously published needs assessment tools, such as the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN) derived from the MRC Needs for Care Assessment Schedule. Similarly, the Difficulties and Needs Self-Assessment Tool was derived from the CAN, where some items are identical, some are a combination of several items of the CAN and some were added as new ones (on work, public places, family and friendship). Some tools, like the Montreal Assessment of Needs Questionnaire, were also developed from the CAN and had different aims, like enhancing data variability to broaden outcome measures for service planning, or simply because the organization of the related system is different and other tools are more appropriate. On the other hand, some tools are based on the CAN, but have been designed for use on a larger scale at the population level, like the Needs Assessment Scale. While most of the tools are used within health care services, the Resident Assessment Instrument Mental Health is a tool developed to support a seamless approach to person-centred health and social care. Some of the tools can also be used outside of the mental health field – such as the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths, which can be used in juvenile justice, intervention applications and child welfare – and the abovementioned CAN and others.

There are slightly different ideas regarding the needs and concepts about measuring needs. Many tools include a combination of needs assessed from different perspectives, such as the Bangor Assessment of Need Profile and the CAN. In some tools, like the Community Placement Questionnaire, it is predicted that various people rate the situation for one patient to eliminate any inaccuracies. On the other hand, some tools presented here, like the Self-Sufficiency Matrix, measure needs indirectly through self-sufficiency. When there is higher self-sufficiency for a certain life domain then there is less need presented for this area. Some tools, like Services Needed, Available, Planned, Offered, are complicated to use, since they include an investigation method with the review of the tool and assessment of the service use after the needs have been recognized. But this can be a good approach for the evaluation of the performance of community mental health centres about meeting the needs of their patients. Although we must bear in mind that such a tool is not directly transferable to every community mental health centre, as this depends on how each system is organized.

Needs can be evaluated according to different points of view, from patients themselves and their caregivers, as well as professionals. Studies show there are different outcomes based on the assessor (Lasalvia et al., 2000a , b , c ; Macpherson et al., 2003 ), and that professionals may see the needs differently to the users. Therefore, it is important not only what the tool is being used, but also who can complete it. Therefore, the most useful tools are the ones that can be used by various different people, so that the needs are assessed (also) from the patients’ standpoints (Larson et al., 2001 ).

Although the CAN is the most widely used tool, the research shows that sometimes there is not a very high agreement between staff and patients about needs, as was also found with the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS), which is the reason why some additional scales, such as the Profile of Community Psychiatry Clients, were developed. There are also some tools, such as the HoNOS, that indirectly measure needs for care, so they can be used as either a clinical or needs assessment tool.

Needs assessment tools are generally used by community psychiatry organizations and are also used to support changes to the organizations of countries’ related systems. The tools have already been used in order to assess the needs within clinical procedures, as well as at higher organizational levels in order to supplement services and direct programming (Royse & Drude, 1982 ). Different tools have good potential to evaluate community mental health services through assessing if patients’ needs have been met. Therefore, this study also aims at answering the question of which tool(s) can be most appropriate regarding different goals.

Within this review, we identified three systematic approaches to needs assessment which encompass different tools. The first is the DISC (Developing Individual Services in the Community) Framework (Smith, 1998 ), which includes the CAN and the Avon Self-Assessment Measure. The second is the Cumulative Needs for Care Monitor (Drukker et al., 2010 ), developed in order to choose the best treatment for each person. This one also uses the CAN and other more clinical tools and outcome measures (such as quality of life). The third is the Colorado Client Assessment Record (Ellis et al., 1984 ), which includes different measures of social functioning, such as the Denver Community of Mental Health Questionnaire, the Community Adjustment Profile, the Fort Logan Evaluation Screen, the Personal Role Skills Scale and the Global Assessment Scale.

This study has several strengths. First, we searched for as many tools and articles as possible. Second, we followed the standard rules of systematic and scoping reviews to present the data in a structured and non-biased manner: we thus searched for information extensively; the search was transparent and reproducible; the data were presented in a structured way. Finally, the scoping review was carried out, since the goal was not to compare and assess the quality of the evidence in the studies, but rather to review of all potential tools that can be used within the process of assessing the needs. Third, this study considered different populations, from severe mental disorders to other mental health problems, including addiction, which produced a strong overview of different tools and versions of the same tool used in other contexts. Fourth, the use of such tools also has a different basis depending on the goals of the system, so it can reflect the organization of care for mental health in a given country. The fifth strength of this work is that in addition to the original 242 articles within the review, we have also included all original sources for development of each of the 29 recognized tools.

This study also has some limitations. First, as the keywords are not same for every study, some studies could have been left out and therefore some tools might have been unrecognized. Second, our needs assessment review focuses on all people with mental health problems, even though the group of those with severe mental illness differs from the group with less severe mental health disorders. Therefore, no conclusion can be made on which tool is better for use in different population groups or disease severities. Third, we only included tools that assess the needs of people with mental health problems, although other tools for the general population could also potentially be useful. Fourth, some tools were developed and validated in only one country, so transferability is questionable or requires additional validation.

Since this scoping review provides insight into the evidence about the existence of different tools for needs assessment, it would also be valuable to conduct additional research on the level of each tool to see if it has already been validated and culturally adapted. To the best of our knowledge, the CAN is the most frequently used tool, and has been translated and adapted into more than 33 different languages (Phelan et al., 1995 ). Some of the tools reviewed in this study use items similar to the CAN, such as the Needs Assessment Scale (de Weert-van Oene et al., 2009 ). Some tools use the same items with a few additional ones, such as the Montreal Assessment of Needs Questionnaire (Tremblay et al., 2014 ), which shows even greater use of the CAN. Thus, the concepts in this latter tool are widely applied.

There are different fields in which certain needs must be addressed to deal with the mental health of the general population or the needs of the population with mental health problems, with the latter being our main focus. This review aimed to develop a tool for needs assessment that can be applied clinically and for research purposes. It is also vital to see what kind of tools can be used to assess needs for the purpose of a formative evaluation process, and the possibility of service development following the identification of actual needs (Makivić et al., 2021 ). Therefore, this article is valuable for a variety of final users, as it can be used by service providers at the level of health or social care, researchers, policymakers and other relevant stakeholders.

Moreover, it is also necessary to assess needs in the field of communication, especially targeting anti-stigma and anti-discrimination campaigns, and to assess the needs of educational systems (Kragelj et al., 2022 ) for the representation of mental health topics (Makivić et al., 2022 ). The use of different tools for assessing needs not only gives us the possibility of identifying such needs, but also establishes the possibility of meeting those needs when these tools are used within bio-psycho-socially oriented primary care or interdisciplinary-oriented mental health care. The assessment of needs at the individual level is important for the effective development of person-centred care plans (Martin et al., 2009 ). Patient-centred psychiatric practice is also needed to increase patient empowerment, which can be done with the help of a needs assessment process.

The review of all the tools for assessing different needs for people with mental health problems presented in this work is new, and therefore fills an important gap in the scientific knowledge of the needs assessment process in the field of mental health.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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• What is a needs assessment? 3 types and ...

What is a needs assessment? 3 types and examples

A needs assessment is a process for determining the needs, otherwise known as "gaps," between current and desired outcomes. When used properly, this assessment provides valuable insight into your team’s processes and highlights areas for efficiency improvements.

When you’re balancing multiple growth initiatives and new projects, it’s hard to know which team improvements to prioritize. Where do you even begin?

When in doubt, try a needs assessment. A needs assessment helps you determine the most important process gaps so you can achieve your desired outcome in the shortest amount of time. Not only will assessing your current processes give you insight into how your team works, but it can also help identify areas of potential efficiency improvements.

What is a needs assessment?

A needs assessment is a process for determining the needs, or "gaps," between a current and desired outcome. It’s a part of strategic planning—essentially, a needs assessment helps you pinpoint how you’ll accomplish your strategic goals. 

A need is an opportunity for improvement within a particular process or system. When you identify—and resolve—needs, you can act on potential new opportunities, like making processes more efficient, streamlining resource allocation , and identifying resource gaps in your current workflow .  

For example, say your team is working on a process to organize customer data. A needs assessment would be a great way to understand where gaps exist in the data collection process—such as missing or inaccurate information—and where internal resources could be better utilized.

What is the purpose of a needs assessment?

A needs assessment identifies areas within your organization that need improvement. Use a needs assessment on existing processes to analyze data and inform internal changes.

Examples of processes you might use a needs assessment to accomplish include:

A process to automate duplicative manual work

A customer journey process that is underperforming

It can be challenging to pinpoint exactly where enhancements are needed. When you’re faced with multiple areas of opportunity, a needs analysis can help you identify the best areas of improvement. 

Example of a needs assessment

A needs assessment is a great way to improve processes, but it’s not always easy to get started. Start by taking a look at some example questions to get a better understanding of the data you’re looking for.

Success rate questions

What activities must be done to accomplish our objectives? 

What is the probability our solution is a success? 

What tasks are required to successfully solve our needs?

Performance questions

Which KPIs are we using to measure performance?

What does excellent performance look like?

What does current performance look like?

Operational questions

Which stakeholders are involved?

Where does the need occur within the process?

How frequently do we observe the need?

Identifying needs requires team communication, problem solving skills, and out-of-the-box ideas. Use these questions as a jumping off point to get the ball rolling. Once you know which questions to ask, you can begin to gather data. 

How to conduct a needs assessment

A needs assessment is a great way to analyze and interpret relevant data. To do this, you need to understand your team’s baseline needs, as well as the process’s overall desired outcome. 

Success rate questions:

Performance questions:

Operational questions:

Identifying needs requires team communication, problem-solving skills, and out-of-the-box ideas. Use these questions as a jumping-off point to get the ball rolling. Once you know which questions to ask, you can begin to gather data.

6 steps for conducting a needs assessment

A needs assessment is a great way to analyze and interpret relevant data that will influence your decision-making. To do this, you need to understand your team’s baseline needs, as well as the process’s overall desired outcome. 

Enlist the help of key stakeholders, funders, and decision makers and collect feedback through meetings or brainstorming sessions. However you choose to start, here are the four steps to follow when conducting a needs assessment. 

1. Identify your team’s needs

To determine the gaps between existing and ideal processes, you first need to understand what the ideal process looks like. Clear objectives are the best way to ensure you’re creating a measurable, actionable, and results-oriented needs assessment. 

Before you can start collecting and analyzing information for your needs assessment, take some time to consider your desired outcomes. Set objectives and gather data on areas of opportunity to plan deadlines and understand the intended outcome. 

Your team members are probably closer to the process than you are, and they have valuable insight into potential process improvements. Gather feedback from your project team, or host a general brainstorming session to identify your team’s biggest gaps. 

Work with your team to answer the following questions: 

What needs are you trying to solve? 

How is this process currently implemented? 

Where are the biggest opportunity gaps? 

What are your desired outcomes? 

Are you looking to solve a specific problem or a more general process? 

Do you have clear, measurable data sources? 

How will you measure success?

2. Measure and allocate your resources

Before you start your assessment, decide exactly how much bandwidth your team has and how much you’re willing to spend on the project. Also, determine how much time you’re giving yourself to meet your goals. Do you want to fill the gaps in six months? A year? Knowing exactly how much bandwidth you have will allow you to take a systematic approach to your report. 

Your team’s availability and organizational resources will impact the comprehensiveness of your needs assessment. If you allot more time to your needs assessment, you’ll be able to spend more time on data collection. 

3. Collect internal information

Next, gather information and collect data on how to best solve the identified gaps. Remember that the goal of a needs assessment is to understand how to get from your current process to the desired outcome. 

Gather data from various departments and stakeholders who are closest to the process. At this point, you’ve already brainstormed with your close project team members, but it’s also critical to understand what your cross-functional partners need from this process improvement as well. 

In order to create a good needs assessment, you need detailed information, so encourage stakeholders to share in depth data about their specific needs. The more information you have, the more likely your needs assessment is to succeed.

Some questions to consider when gathering information include: 

Where are improvements needed?

Why are current methods underperforming?

Do we have enough resources to execute a more successful process?

These questions will help you gather the necessary details to move on to step four.

4. Gather external information

Once you’ve gathered information from your project team and from cross-functional stakeholders, all that’s left is to gather information from external sources. Getting information from external sources, in addition to your internal collaborators, gives you a bird’s-eye view of the process from start to finish. 

There are multiple ways to gather external information on your target group, including:

Customer questionnaires: Used to gather quick, high-level customer data from multiple geographical locations

Focus groups: Used to gather in-depth information from a specific geographical location

It’s also a good idea to enlist a fresh pair of eyes to follow the process from start to finish to catch additional inefficiencies. While the type of needs assessment technique you use will depend on your situation, you should opt for the one that gives you the best chance of correcting inefficiencies.

5. Get feedback

A needs assessment is all about corporate and community needs. Test your findings with diverse groups of people who might have varying perspectives (and biases ) on your data. Share it with stakeholders and community members alike to gauge how both your higher-ups and target audience are going to react to any process changes. 

A few people who may want to see your assessment include: 

Project partners

Community members

Stakeholders

With the feedback you receive, you can make any necessary adjustments to the report before you start making large-scale changes to your identified needs. 

6. Use your data

At this point, you’ve collected all of the information you can. The only thing left to do is to use your needs assessment results and insights to make a final report and an action plan.

Use the information you gathered in steps one through five to transform your needs assessment data into a cumulative report. In addition to the notes, details, and observations you’ve made during your brainstorming sessions, add a summary documenting the next steps—in particular, the phases, technical assistance, training programs, and other components that will help you implement the process changes. 

Implementing the results of your needs assessment will take time. Make sure your team has an effective process in place to guide the improvement, like:

Project management tools : Help to organize information and communicate with team members

Change management : Assists with documenting need and gap changes

Business process management (BPA) : Helps to analyze and improve processes

Process implementation planning : Outlines the steps needed to reach a shared goal

Needs assessment examples

There are many different data collection methods—from quantitative techniques like surveys to qualitative techniques such as focus groups. Your target demographic may influence your methodology, so take into account whose perspective you’re looking for before you decide. 

Needs assessments provide crucial data on existing processes and help teams create more effective systems. 

Here are three of the most popular methods of collecting needs assessment data:

Questionnaires

Questionnaires and interviews are the most popular methods for collecting data. A questionnaire is a surface-level form with general yes or no questions. This is a great way to get quick information from respondents.

Use for things like: Evaluating the effectiveness of your brand identity

Many teams use surveys to collect external information around customer experience. Surveys often include open-ended questions, so they provide more in-depth information than questionnaires. This is a great way to find accurate but quick information.

Use for things like: Evaluating the success of your post-purchase experience from the customer’s perspective

Focus groups

A focus group is an interview involving a small number of participants who share common traits or experiences. While they require considerably more time than the other two methods, focus groups provide extensive information around needs and customer experience. This is a great way to gather in-depth information.

Use for things like: Evaluating how your customers experience your brand and what they think could be improved

Identify your team’s needs with an analysis

Performing a needs assessment is a great way to understand how current processes are being handled and how you can streamline tasks and communication. Knowing which needs are most important isn’t always obvious. With a needs analysis, you can gather the data you need to make your team more efficient. 

If you’re looking to improve efficiency and productivity as a team, keep information and tasks streamlined with productivity software. From empowering collaboration to creating and sharing templates, Asana can help.

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• Published: 21 December 2015

Tools and instruments for needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation of health research capacity development activities at the individual and organizational level: a systematic review

• Johanna Huber 1 ,
• Sushil Nepal 1 ,
• Daniel Bauer 1 ,
• Insa Wessels 2 ,
• Martin R Fischer 1 &
• Claudia Kiessling 1 , 3  

Health Research Policy and Systems volume  13 , Article number:  80 ( 2015 ) Cite this article

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In the past decades, various frameworks, methods, indicators, and tools have been developed to assess the needs as well as to monitor and evaluate (needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation; “NaME”) health research capacity development (HRCD) activities. This systematic review gives an overview on NaME activities at the individual and organizational level in the past 10 years with a specific focus on methods, tools and instruments. Insight from this review might support researchers and stakeholders in systemizing future efforts in the HRCD field.

A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed and Google Scholar. Additionally, the personal bibliographies of the authors were scanned. Two researchers independently reviewed the identified abstracts for inclusion according to previously defined eligibility criteria. The included articles were analysed with a focus on both different HRCD activities as well as NaME efforts.

Initially, the search revealed 700 records in PubMed, two additional records in Google Scholar, and 10 abstracts from the personal bibliographies of the authors. Finally, 42 studies were included and analysed in depth. Findings show that the NaME efforts in the field of HRCD are as complex and manifold as the concept of HRCD itself. NaME is predominately focused on outcome evaluation and mainly refers to the individual and team levels.

A substantial need for a coherent and transparent taxonomy of HRCD activities to maximize the benefits of future studies in the field was identified. A coherent overview of the tools used to monitor and evaluate HRCD activities is provided to inform further research in the field.

Peer Review reports

The capacity to cope with new and ill-structured situations is a crucial ability in today’s world. Developing this ability, by shaping empowered citizens, challenges individuals as well as organisations and societies. This process of empowerment is usually referred to as capacity development (CD) [ 1 ]. While this term has been commonly used for years in the field of foreign aid, other societal and political domains (e.g. social work, education and health systems) are increasingly adopting the concept of CD when developing new or existing competencies, structures, and strategies for building resilient individuals and organizations [ 2 ]. Also in the field of health research, an increasing number of activities to strengthen health research competencies and to support organizations can be observed – as demanded by the three United Nations Millennium Development Goals addressing health related issues [ 3 – 6 ]. Several frameworks are already in use that support a structured approach to health research capacity development (HRCD) and address competencies that are specific to health research [ 7 – 9 ]. These frameworks usually incorporate the individual or team, organization or institution, and society levels [ 8 , 10 , 11 ]. One conclusion that can be drawn from the available evidence is that, in such a structured approach to HRCD efforts, meaningful data collection is crucial. First, data collection incorporates the HRCD needs assessment and second, the monitoring and evaluation (NaME) of activities and programs once implemented. Therefore, HRCD activities should address the needs as assessed. Monitoring and evaluation of these activities should reflect the desired outcomes as defined beforehand [ 12 – 15 ]. Bates et al. [ 16 ] indicate how data collection tools and instruments are usually developed for a certain purpose in a certain context. The context specificity of tools and instruments has to be considered and the appropriateness of these must be determined when selecting instruments for any needs assessment for a new project. This article offers a systematic review of tools and instruments for the NaME of HRCD activities at the individual or team and the organizational levels to aid HRCD initiatives in selecting appropriate tools and instruments for data collection within their respective context. For this purpose, a range of studies published between January 1, 2003, and June 30, 2013, were chosen and analysed based on different context parameters such as the level of the CD and the nature of the HRCD activities.

We followed the PRISMA checklist for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses [ 17 ]. Inclusion and analysis criteria were defined in advance and documented in a protocol (Tables  1 and 2 ).

Information sources and search strategy

We conducted the systematic literature search in July 2013. The search was done in both the literature database PubMed and the search engine Google Scholar. We applied the three search terms “capacity building” AND “research ” , “capacity development” AND “research”, and “capacity strengthening” AND “research”. We checked the first 200 hits in Google Scholar for each search term. “Health” and “evaluation” were not included in the search terms as a pre-test search had revealed this would exclude relevant literature. Articles from personal bibliographies of the authors were also included.

Inclusion categories and criteria

The inclusion process was structured along the five inclusion categories ‘capacity development’, ‘research’, ‘health profession fields’, ‘monitoring and evaluation’, and ‘level of NaME’. Table  1 gives a detailed overview of all descriptions and operationalisations used.

The category ‘capacity development’ [ 18 ] represents an exemplary definition which serves as a guideline for inclusion but should not to be applied word by word. ‘Research’ was operationalized according to the categories of the ‘research spider’ [ 19 ]. Some process-related research skills as well as communicational and interpersonal skills were added to our operationalisation [ 20 ]. Main health professions were identified and grouped within different fields. NaME was operationalized according to a self-constructed NaME framework of HRCD activities (Fig.  1 ), which summarizes 13 HRCD/NaME frameworks [ 2 , 5 , 8 , 10 – 13 , 15 , 21 – 25 ] and reflects the level of HRCD, common indicators, and the order (from needs assessment to impact evaluation) commonly used in the original frameworks.

Framework for needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation (NaME) of health research capacity development (HRCD) [ 2 , 5 , 8 , 10 – 13 , 15 , 21 – 25 ].

For the categories ‘research’, ‘health profession fields’ and ‘monitoring and evaluation’, at least one of the operationalisations of each category had to be addressed by the study. The category ‘level of NaME’ was operationalized referring to the ESSENCE framework ‘Planning, monitoring and evaluation framework for capacity strengthening in health research’ which describes three CD levels: individual and/or team, organizational, and system levels [ 10 ]. Only publications focussing on NaME on the individual/team and organizational levels were considered for this review.

Additionally, the following eligibility criteria were set: English or German language, publication period from January 1, 2003, to June 30, 2013, intervention, non-intervention and multiple design studies (Fig.  2 ). We excluded grey literature, editorials, comments, congress abstracts, letters, and similar. Articles focussing on institutional networks with external partners were excluded as well.

Categorization of the study designs. The study designs are restricted to the included studies.

Study selection

Two researchers, JH and SN, independently scanned the abstracts identified for inclusion. In case of disagreement, JH and SN discussed the abstracts in question. If consensus could still not be reached, a third reviewer, CK, was consulted. After consensus on inclusion was reached, the full-texts of all included studies were rechecked for inclusion by JH and SN.

Study analysis procedure

We analysed the included articles according to nine aspects defined in Table  2 .

The search in PubMed revealed 700 suitable records (Fig.  3 ). We removed 27 duplicates, resulting in 673 records for inclusion screening. The first 200 hits for each of the three search terms in Google Scholar were considered, resulting in two additional records after removing duplicates. Furthermore, we included articles from the personal bibliographies of the authors, adding 10 more abstracts after checking for duplicates. Of the 685 records identified, 24 did not contain an abstract, but were preliminarily included for the full-text screening. JH and SN scanned the remaining 661 abstracts in terms of the inclusion criteria, thus excluding 616 records; 45 abstracts and the 24 records without abstracts were considered for full-text screening. After the full-text screening, 42 articles were finally included for further analysis; 37 articles originated from PubMed, one from Google Scholar, and four from the personal bibliographies of the authors.

Flowchart of the inclusion process.

These 42 articles were subsequently analysed along nine aspects (Table  2 ). The results are summarized in Table  3 .

Around half of the NaME studies on HRCD activities were conducted in high-income countries (n = 24) [ 26 ]. Six studies took place in lower-middle-income and two in upper-middle-income economies. Participants of one study were from a low-income country [ 27 ]. Two studies were performed in partnerships between a high-income and several low-, lower-middle and upper-middle-income economies. Mayhew et al. [ 28 ] described a partnership study between two upper-middle income countries and Bates et al. [ 29 ] analysed case studies from two lower-middle-income and two low-income economies. Five authors did not specify the country or region of their studies.

The evaluation focus of the studies was predominately on outcome evaluation (n = 23). Besides that, six studies surveyed the current state, three studies assessed requirements, and two studies investigated needs of HRCD activities. The remaining eight studies combined two evaluation aspects: definition of needs and outcome evaluation (n = 4), analysis of current state and outcome evaluation (n = 1), outcome evaluation and impact evaluation (n = 1), and analysis of current state and definition of needs (n = 1). Jamerson et al. [ 30 ] did not define their focus of evaluation.

Nearly half of the studies investigated HRCD on the individual/team level (n = 20); 16 studies were conducted at both the individual/team and organizational levels. The authors of six studies focused on organizational aspects of HRCD.

Almost all studies (n = 38) described and evaluated HRCD activities; 19 of these HRCD activities were training programmes of predefined duration, lasting between some hours or days up to 2 years. Another nine HRCD activities were perpetual or their duration not specified and 10 studies defined and pre-assessed the setting in preparation of an HRCD activity. The authors of four studies did not specify an HRCD activity, focussing on the development or validation of tools, instruments, and frameworks.

The participants of HRCD activities represent a wide range of health professions (e.g. laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, dentists, pharmacists); 10 studies investigated staff with management tasks in health, e.g. hospital managers, clinical research managers. Nurses participated in eight studies with another eight studies looking into ‘research staff’ and ‘scientists’ with no further description. Medical practitioners were studied in five papers. Besides all these, the background of participants was often not specified beyond general terms like ‘health professionals’, ‘ethic committee members’, ‘scholars’, ‘university faculty members’, or ‘allied health professionals’. In a different approach, Suter et al. [ 31 ] analysed reports and Bates et al. [ 29 ] investigated case studies (without specifying the material scrutinized).

A wide variety of study designs was employed by the studies included in the review. We identified 35 single-study and six multi-study approaches. Of the 35 single-study approaches, 10 were designed as intervention (three with control groups) and 25 as non-intervention studies. Four multi-study approaches combined an intervention study with a non-intervention study. Two multi-study approaches combined different non-intervention studies. Jamerson et al. [ 30 ] did not specify their study design.

Many different tools and instruments for NaME were identified and applied in quantitative, qualitative and mixed mode of analysis. No preferred approach was observed. One third of the studies (n = 16) used a combination of tools for quantitative as well as qualitative analysis. In 13 studies, tools like questionnaires and assessment sheets were applied to evaluate and monitor HRCD activities quantitatively. Evaluation tools, such as interviews, focus group discussions, document analyses, or mapping of cases against evaluation frameworks, were identified in 12 studies and commonly analysed in a qualitative approach. In one study, tools for evaluation were not described at all.

Summary of evidence

The aim of our systematic review was to give an overview on tools and instruments for NaME of HRCD activities on the individual and organizational level; 42 included articles demonstrated a large variety of tools and instruments in specific settings. Questionnaires, assessment sheets and interviews (in qualitative settings) were most commonly applied and in part disseminated for further use, development and validation.

Overall, 36 studies were either conducted on the individual/team or on both individual/team and organizational level. Within these studies, a well-balanced mixture of quantitative, qualitative and mixed tools and modes of analysis were applied. Judging from the depth of these studies, it seems as if NaME of HRCD on the individual level is quite well developed. Only six studies focused exclusively on organizational aspects, almost all with qualitative approaches, indicating that HRCD studies at this level are still mainly exploratory. The organizational level is possibly a more complex construct to measure. The fact that 13 out of 19 studies that broach organizational aspects were conducted in high-income countries might reflect the wider possibilities of these research institutions and indicates a need for more attention to NaME on the organizational level in lower-income settings. Results from these exploratory studies on the organizational level should feed into the development of standardized quantitative indicators more regularly. Qualitative approaches could be pursued for complex and specific constructs not easily covered quantitatively.

By not limiting the primary selection of articles for this review to a specific health profession, it was revealed that staff with management tasks in health research, as well as nurses, were the cohorts most frequently targeted by NaME studies. Further research should concentrate on other health professionals to determine communalities and differences of health-research related skill acquisition and development between health professions. These studies could determine whether and which parts of HRCD and NaME can be considered generic across health professions. Further, we will at some point have to ask, who is being left out and who is not getting access to HRCD programs, and why.

The focus of NaME throughout the studies included in this review was on outcome measurement, regardless of whether these were conducted in high-income, upper-middle, lower-middle, or low-income countries. However, there were only few reports of needs assessment from middle- and low-income economies, while high-income countries regularly give account of current states. While this should not be over-interpreted, it still raises the question of whether the needs assessment in the middle- and low-income countries is being done as thoroughly as warranted, but not reported in the articles, or if these countries’ needs might not always be at the very centre of the HRCD’s attention. While the evaluation of HRCD outcomes is, of course, of importance, more attention should be paid to the sustainability of programs and impact evaluation, e.g. parameters of patient care or societal aspects. Only one study, that of Hyder et al. [ 32 ], made use of one such indicator and assessed the impact of a HRCD training by considering “teaching activities after returning to Pakistan”. The development of valid impact indicators of course constitutes a methodological challenge. Some studies reporting impact evaluation on a system level might of course have been missed due to the search parameters applied.

When undertaking the review, three main methodological weaknesses of this research area became apparent. First, there is a need for common definitions and terminologies to better communicate and compare the HRCD efforts. The analysis of the studies showed that there is an inconsistent use of terms, for example, for CD activities (e.g. training, course, or workshop). Similar problems were already identified in the context of educational capacity building by Steinert et al. [ 33 ], who suggest definitions for different training settings which may also be suitable for a more precise description of CD activities. A common taxonomy for the description of health professionals (i.e. the study participants) would be just as desirable. The use of coherent terms would not only enable the accurate replication of studies but also help in determining whether tools and instruments from one setting can be easily transferred to another. A clear and coherent description of study setting and participants is thus an integral step towards scientific transparency. The incoherent categorisation of study types is probably not a new problem. It is, however, amplified by authors who choose very complex approaches to collect data at different NaME levels with deviating terms to describe these approaches [ 28 , 34 – 36 ].

The second weakness of the research area is the varying adherence to reporting standards. While there are standards available for reporting qualitative or quantitative research (e.g. Rossi et al. [ 12 ], Downing [ 37 ], Mays & Pope [ 38 ]), it seems these or similar recommendations were not frequently considered when reporting or reviewing NaME studies. This was particularly the case in studies with a mixed-method mode of analysis, where the need for more standardised reporting became apparent. Frambach et al.’s [ 39 ] “Quality Criteria in Qualitative and Quantitative Research” could provide guidance, especially for studies with mixed-method approaches. Another important aspect of transparent reporting would be the publication of the tools and instruments used in NaME studies. Of the 42 articles scrutinized during this review, only 15 either disclosed the tools and instruments within the article itself in an appendix or volunteered to have them sent to any audience interested. Of all the tools and instruments disclosed, only two were used in two or more studies. Making the tools and instruments available to the HRCD community would not only allow for their adaptation whenever necessary but, more importantly, support their validation and enhancement.

The last point concerns the study designs implemented. The majority of articles are mainly descriptive, non-intervention studies that only allow for low evidence according to Cochrane standards [ 40 ]. While most HRCD studies conducted in high-income economies were of non-interventional nature, those from low- and middle-income countries were a mix of non-intervention, intervention and multi-study approaches, yielding higher levels of evidence. Of all interventional studies, most employed a quasi-experimental design with only one randomized controlled trial [ 23 ]. The studies reporting HRCD on the institutional level were also primarily on a descriptive level. Cook et al. [ 41 ], however, demand going beyond describing what one did (descriptive studies) or whether an intervention worked or not (justification studies). Instead, they call for analysing how and why a program worked or failed (clarification studies). An in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of different HRCD activities is, however, still lacking.

Limitations of the systematic review

This systematic review displays some methodological limitations itself. The issue of deviating terminologies has been raised earlier. In most cases, we adopted the terms used in the studies themselves, e.g. when reporting the authors’ denoted study designs. In very few cases, we changed or completed terms to make the studies more comparable to others. One example is changing the wording from Green et al.’s [ 35 ] “case study approach” into a “multi-study approach” to match Flyvberg’s taxonomy [ 42 ]. Other limitations typical for reviews may also apply. Relevant sources might not have been detected due to the selected search terms, the range of the data sources, the exclusion of grey literature, and the restriction to English and German sources.

A systematic review on studies from the field of HRCD activities was conducted, with 42 studies being fully analysed. The analysis revealed that a variety of terms and definitions used to describe NaME efforts impedes the comparability and transferability of results. Nevertheless, insight from this review can help to inform researchers and other stakeholders in the HRCD community. A coherent overview on tools and instruments for NaME of HRCD was developed and is provided (Table  3 ).

Furthermore, it is time to set standards for NaME in the HRCD community. Researchers and stakeholders should develop a common research agenda to push, systematise and improve the research efforts in the field of NaME of HRCD activities. To do so, a common language and terminology is required. The conceptualizations used for the purpose of these review can inform this development. On the other hand, we have to critically analyse research gaps in terms of generalizable versus context-specific theories, methods, tools, and instruments. To maximize the benefits and to incorporate different research traditions, these undertakings should be done internationally and multi-professionally within the HRCD community.

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Wootton R. A simple, generalizable method for measuring individual research productivity and its use in the long-term analysis of departmental performance, including between-country comparisons. Health Res Policy Syst. 2013;11:2. doi: 10.1186/1478-4505-11-2 .

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Johanna Huber, Sushil Nepal, Daniel Bauer, Martin R Fischer & Claudia Kiessling

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Authors’ contributions

JH and SN designed and conducted the systematic review. JH wrote the draft of the systematic review and revised it according to the commentaries of SN, DB, IW, MF, and CK. JH provided the final version of the manuscript. SN additionally critically reviewed the manuscript and substantially contributed to the final version of the manuscript. DB critically reviewed both the design of the systematic review as well as the manuscript. He was involved in the development of meaningful inclusion criteria. DB contributed substantially to the final version of the manuscript. IW critically reviewed the design of the study and made important suggestions for improvement. She also critically reviewed the manuscript and contributed substantially to the final version of the manuscript. MF critically reviewed the design of the study and the manuscript. He suggested important improvements for the design of the study and substantially contributed to the final version of the manuscript. CK made substantial contributions to the design, conduction and review of the study, and was the third reviewer during the inclusion process of the identified studies. She critically reviewed the manuscript and delivered important improvements for the final version of the manuscript.

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Huber, J., Nepal, S., Bauer, D. et al. Tools and instruments for needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation of health research capacity development activities at the individual and organizational level: a systematic review. Health Res Policy Sys 13 , 80 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-015-0070-3

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The Most Important Research Skills (With Examples)

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Research skills are the ability to find out accurate information on a topic. They include being able to determine the data you need, find and interpret those findings, and then explain that to others. Being able to do effective research is a beneficial skill in any profession, as data and research inform how businesses operate.

Whether you’re unsure of your research skills or are looking for ways to further improve them, then this article will cover important research skills and how to become even better at research.

Key Takeaways

Having strong research skills can help you understand your competitors, develop new processes, and build your professional skills in addition to aiding you in finding new customers and saving your company money.

Some of the most valuable research skills you can have include goal setting, data collection, and analyzing information from multiple sources.

You can and should put your research skills on your resume and highlight them in your job interviews.

What are research skills?

Why are research skills important, 12 of the most important research skills, how to improve your research skills, highlighting your research skills in a job interview, how to include research skills on your resume, resume examples showcasing research skills, research skills faqs.

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Research skills are the necessary tools to be able to find, compile, and interpret information in order to answer a question. Of course, there are several aspects to this. Researchers typically have to decide how to go about researching a problem — which for most people is internet research.

In addition, you need to be able to interpret the reliability of a source, put the information you find together in an organized and logical way, and be able to present your findings to others. That means that they’re comprised of both hard skills — knowing your subject and what’s true and what isn’t — and soft skills. You need to be able to interpret sources and communicate clearly.

Research skills are useful in any industry, and have applications in innovation, product development, competitor research, and many other areas. In addition, the skills used in researching aren’t only useful for research. Being able to interpret information is a necessary skill, as is being able to clearly explain your reasoning.

Research skills are used to:

Do competitor research. Knowing what your biggest competitors are up to is an essential part of any business. Researching what works for your competitors, what they’re doing better than you, and where you can improve your standing with the lowest resource expenditure are all essential if a company wants to remain functional.

Develop new processes and products. You don’t have to be involved in research and development to make improvements in how your team gets things done. Researching new processes that make your job (and those of your team) more efficient will be valued by any sensible employer.

Foster self-improvement. Folks who have a knack and passion for research are never content with doing things the same way they’ve always been done. Organizations need independent thinkers who will seek out their own answers and improve their skills as a matter of course. These employees will also pick up new technologies more easily.

Manage customer relationships. Being able to conduct research on your customer base is positively vital in virtually every industry. It’s hard to move products or sell services if you don’t know what people are interested in. Researching your customer base’s interests, needs, and pain points is a valuable responsibility.

Save money. Whether your company is launching a new product or just looking for ways to scale back its current spending, research is crucial for finding wasted resources and redirecting them to more deserving ends. Anyone who proactively researches ways that the company can save money will be highly appreciated by their employer.

Solve problems. Problem solving is a major part of a lot of careers, and research skills are instrumental in making sure your solution is effective. Finding out the cause of the problem and determining an effective solution both require accurate information, and research is the best way to obtain that — be it via the internet or by observation.

Determine reliable information. Being able to tell whether or not the information you receive seems accurate is a very valuable skill. While research skills won’t always guarantee that you’ll be able to tell the reliability of the information at first glance, it’ll prevent you from being too trusting. And it’ll give the tools to double-check .

Experienced researchers know that worthwhile investigation involves a variety of skills. Consider which research skills come naturally to you, and which you could work on more.

Data collection . When thinking about the research process, data collection is often the first thing that comes to mind. It is the nuts and bolts of research. How data is collected can be flexible.

For some purposes, simply gathering facts and information on the internet can fulfill your need. Others may require more direct and crowd-sourced research. Having experience in various methods of data collection can make your resume more impressive to recruiters.

Data collection methods include: Observation Interviews Questionnaires Experimentation Conducting focus groups

Analysis of information from different sources. Putting all your eggs in one source basket usually results in error and disappointment. One of the skills that good researchers always incorporate into their process is an abundance of sources. It’s also best practice to consider the reliability of these sources.

Are you reading about U.S. history on a conspiracy theorist’s blog post? Taking facts for a presentation from an anonymous Twitter account?

If you can’t determine the validity of the sources you’re using, it can compromise all of your research. That doesn’t mean just disregard anything on the internet but double-check your findings. In fact, quadruple-check. You can make your research even stronger by turning to references outside of the internet.

Examples of reliable information sources include: Published books Encyclopedias Magazines Databases Scholarly journals Newspapers Library catalogs

Finding information on the internet. While it can be beneficial to consulate alternative sources, strong internet research skills drive modern-day research.

One of the great things about the internet is how much information it contains, however, this comes with digging through a lot of garbage to get to the facts you need. The ability to efficiently use the vast database of knowledge that is on the internet without getting lost in the junk is very valuable to employers.

Internet research skills include: Source checking Searching relevant questions Exploring deeper than the first options Avoiding distraction Giving credit Organizing findings

Interviewing. Some research endeavors may require a more hands-on approach than just consulting internet sources. Being prepared with strong interviewing skills can be very helpful in the research process.

Interviews can be a useful research tactic to gain first-hand information and being able to manage a successful interview can greatly improve your research skills.

Interviewing skills involves: A plan of action Specific, pointed questions Respectfulness Considering the interview setting Actively Listening Taking notes Gratitude for participation

Report writing. Possessing skills in report writing can assist you in job and scholarly research. The overall purpose of a report in any context is to convey particular information to its audience.

Effective report writing is largely dependent on communication. Your boss, professor , or general reader should walk away completely understanding your findings and conclusions.

Report writing skills involve: Proper format Including a summary Focusing on your initial goal Creating an outline Proofreading Directness

Critical thinking. Critical thinking skills can aid you greatly throughout the research process, and as an employee in general. Critical thinking refers to your data analysis skills. When you’re in the throes of research, you need to be able to analyze your results and make logical decisions about your findings.

Critical thinking skills involve: Observation Analysis Assessing issues Problem-solving Creativity Communication

Planning and scheduling. Research is a work project like any other, and that means it requires a little forethought before starting. Creating a detailed outline map for the points you want to touch on in your research produces more organized results.

It also makes it much easier to manage your time. Planning and scheduling skills are important to employers because they indicate a prepared employee.

Planning and scheduling skills include: Setting objectives Identifying tasks Prioritizing Delegating if needed Vision Communication Clarity Time-management

Note-taking. Research involves sifting through and taking in lots of information. Taking exhaustive notes ensures that you will not neglect any findings later and allows you to communicate these results to your co-workers. Being able to take good notes helps summarize research.

Examples of note-taking skills include: Focus Organization Using short-hand Keeping your objective in mind Neatness Highlighting important points Reviewing notes afterward

Communication skills. Effective research requires being able to understand and process the information you receive, either written or spoken. That means that you need strong reading comprehension and writing skills — two major aspects of communication — as well as excellent listening skills.

Most research also involves showcasing your findings. This can be via a presentation. , report, chart, or Q&A. Whatever the case, you need to be able to communicate your findings in a way that educates your audience.

Communication skills include: Reading comprehension Writing Listening skills Presenting to an audience Creating graphs or charts Explaining in layman’s terms

Time management. We’re, unfortunately, only given 24 measly hours in a day. The ability to effectively manage this time is extremely powerful in a professional context. Hiring managers seek candidates who can accomplish goals in a given timeframe.

Strong time management skills mean that you can organize a plan for how to break down larger tasks in a project and complete them by a deadline. Developing your time management skills can greatly improve the productivity of your research.

Time management skills include: Scheduling Creating task outlines Strategic thinking Stress-management Delegation Communication Utilizing resources Setting realistic expectations Meeting deadlines

Using your network. While this doesn’t seem immediately relevant to research skills, remember that there are a lot of experts out there. Knowing what people’s areas of expertise and asking for help can be tremendously beneficial — especially if it’s a subject you’re unfamiliar with.

Your coworkers are going to have different areas of expertise than you do, and your network of people will as well. You may even know someone who knows someone who’s knowledgeable in the area you’re researching. Most people are happy to share their expertise, as it’s usually also an area of interest to them.

Networking involves: Remembering people’s areas of expertise Being willing to ask for help Communication Returning favors Making use of advice Asking for specific assistance

Attention to detail. Research is inherently precise. That means that you need to be attentive to the details, both in terms of the information you’re gathering, but also in where you got it from. Making errors in statistics can have a major impact on the interpretation of the data, not to mention that it’ll reflect poorly on you.

There are proper procedures for citing sources that you should follow. That means that your sources will be properly credited, preventing accusations of plagiarism. In addition, it means that others can make use of your research by returning to the original sources.

Attention to detail includes: Double checking statistics Taking notes Keeping track of your sources Staying organized Making sure graphs are accurate and representative Properly citing sources

As with many professional skills, research skills serve us in our day to day life. Any time you search for information on the internet, you’re doing research. That means that you’re practicing it outside of work as well. If you want to continue improving your research skills, both for professional and personal use, here are some tips to try.

Differentiate between source quality. A researcher is only as good as their worst source. Start paying attention to the quality of the sources you use, and be suspicious of everything your read until you check out the attributions and works cited.

Be critical and ask yourself about the author’s bias, where the author’s research aligns with the larger body of verified research in the field, and what publication sponsored or published the research.

Use multiple resources. When you can verify information from a multitude of sources, it becomes more and more credible. To bolster your faith in one source, see if you can find another source that agrees with it.

Don’t fall victim to confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is when a researcher expects a certain outcome and then goes to find data that supports this hypothesis. It can even go so far as disregarding anything that challenges the researcher’s initial hunch. Be prepared for surprising answers and keep an open mind.

Be open to the idea that you might not find a definitive answer. It’s best to be honest and say that you found no definitive answer instead of just confirming what you think your boss or coworkers expect or want to hear. Experts and good researchers are willing to say that they don’t know.

Stay organized. Being able to cite sources accurately and present all your findings is just as important as conducting the research itself. Start practicing good organizational skills , both on your devices and for any physical products you’re using.

Get specific as you go. There’s nothing wrong with starting your research in a general way. After all, it’s important to become familiar with the terminology and basic gist of the researcher’s findings before you dig down into all the minutia.

A job interview is itself a test of your research skills. You can expect questions on what you know about the company, the role, and your field or industry more generally. In order to give expert answers on all these topics, research is crucial.

Start by researching the company . Look into how they communicate with the public through social media, what their mission statement is, and how they describe their culture.

Pay close attention to the tone of their website. Is it hyper professional or more casual and fun-loving? All of these elements will help decide how best to sell yourself at the interview.

Next, research the role. Go beyond the job description and reach out to current employees working at your desired company and in your potential department. If you can find out what specific problems your future team is or will be facing, you’re sure to impress hiring managers and recruiters with your ability to research all the facts.

Finally, take time to research the job responsibilities you’re not as comfortable with. If you’re applying for a job that represents increased difficulty or entirely new tasks, it helps to come into the interview with at least a basic knowledge of what you’ll need to learn.

Research projects require dedication. Being committed is a valuable skill for hiring managers. Whether you’ve had research experience throughout education or a former job, including it properly can boost the success of your resume .

Consider how extensive your research background is. If you’ve worked on multiple, in-depth research projects, it might be best to include it as its own section. If you have less research experience, include it in the skills section .

Focus on your specific role in the research, as opposed to just the research itself. Try to quantify accomplishments to the best of your abilities. If you were put in charge of competitor research, for example, list that as one of the tasks you had in your career.

If it was a particular project, such as tracking the sale of women’s clothing at a tee-shirt company, you can say that you “directed analysis into women’s clothing sales statistics for a market research project.”

Ascertain how directly research skills relate to the job you’re applying for. How strongly you highlight your research skills should depend on the nature of the job the resume is for. If research looks to be a strong component of it, then showcase all of your experience.

If research looks to be tangential, then be sure to mention it — it’s a valuable skill — but don’t put it front and center.

Example #1: Academic Research

Simon Marks 767 Brighton Blvd. | Brooklyn, NY, 27368 | (683)-262-8883 | [email protected] Diligent and hardworking recent graduate seeking a position to develop professional experience and utilize research skills. B.A. in Biological Sciences from New York University. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Lixus Publishing , Brooklyn, NY Office Assistant- September 2018-present Scheduling and updating meetings Managing emails and phone calls Reading entries Worked on a science fiction campaign by researching target demographic Organizing calendars Promoted to office assistant after one year internship Mitch’s Burgers and Fries , Brooklyn, NY Restaurant Manager , June 2014-June 2018 Managed a team of five employees Responsible for coordinating the weekly schedule Hired and trained two employees Kept track of inventory Dealt with vendors Provided customer service Promoted to restaurant manager after two years as a waiter Awarded a $2.00/hr wage increase SKILLS Writing Scientific Research Data analysis Critical thinking Planning Communication RESEARCH Worked on an ecosystem biology project with responsibilities for algae collection and research (2019) Lead a group of freshmen in a research project looking into cell biology (2018) EDUCATION New York University Bachelors in Biological Sciences, September 2016-May 2020

Example #2: Professional Research

Angela Nichols 1111 Keller Dr. | San Francisco, CA | (663)-124-8827 |[email protected] Experienced and enthusiastic marketer with 7 years of professional experience. Seeking a position to apply my marketing and research knowledge. Skills in working on a team and flexibility. EXPERIENCE Apples amp; Oranges Marketing, San Francisco, CA Associate Marketer – April 2017-May 2020 Discuss marketing goals with clients Provide customer service Lead campaigns associated with women’s health Coordinating with a marketing team Quickly solving issues in service and managing conflict Awarded with two raises totaling $10,000 over three years Prestigious Marketing Company, San Francisco, CA Marketer – May 2014-April 2017 Working directly with clients Conducting market research into television streaming preferences Developing marketing campaigns related to television streaming services Report writing Analyzing campaign success statistics Promoted to Marketer from Junior Marketer after the first year Timberlake Public Relations, San Francisco, CA Public Relations Intern – September 2013–May 2014 Working cohesively with a large group of co-workers and supervisors Note-taking during meetings Running errands Managing email accounts Assisting in brainstorming Meeting work deadlines EDUCATION Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA Bachelor of Arts in Marketing with a minor in Communications – September 2009 – May 2013 SKILLS Marketing Market research Record-keeping Teamwork Presentation. Flexibility

What research skills are important?

Goal-setting and data collection are important research skills. Additional important research skills include:

Using different sources to analyze information.

Finding information on the internet.

Interviewing sources.

Writing reports.

Critical thinking.

Planning and scheduling.

Note-taking.

Managing time.

How do you develop good research skills?

You develop good research skills by learning how to find information from multiple high-quality sources, by being wary of confirmation bias, and by starting broad and getting more specific as you go.

When you learn how to tell a reliable source from an unreliable one and get in the habit of finding multiple sources that back up a claim, you’ll have better quality research.

In addition, when you learn how to keep an open mind about what you’ll find, you’ll avoid falling into the trap of confirmation bias, and by staying organized and narrowing your focus as you go (rather than before you start), you’ll be able to gather quality information more efficiently.

What is the importance of research?

The importance of research is that it informs most decisions and strategies in a business. Whether it’s deciding which products to offer or creating a marketing strategy, research should be used in every part of a company.

Because of this, employers want employees who have strong research skills. They know that you’ll be able to put them to work bettering yourself and the organization as a whole.

Should you put research skills on your resume?

Yes, you should include research skills on your resume as they are an important professional skill. Where you include your research skills on your resume will depend on whether you have a lot of experience in research from a previous job or as part of getting your degree, or if you’ve just cultivated them on your own.

If your research skills are based on experience, you could put them down under the tasks you were expected to perform at the job in question. If not, then you should likely list it in your skills section.

University of the People – The Best Research Skills for Success

Association of Internet Research Specialists — What are Research Skills and Why Are They Important?

MasterClass — How to Improve Your Research Skills: 6 Research Tips

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

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Learning needs assessment: assessing the need

Learning needs assessment has a fundamental role in education and training, but care is needed to prevent it becoming a straitjacket

It might seem self evident that the need to learn should underpin any educational system. Indeed, the literature suggests that, at least in relation to continuing professional development, learning is more likely to lead to change in practice when needs assessment has been conducted, the education is linked to practice, personal incentive drives the educational effort, and there is some reinforcement of the learning. 1 Learning needs assessment is thus crucial in the educational process, but perhaps more of this already occurs in medical education than we suspect. The key lesson might be for those who design new systems of education and training: for example, the postgraduate education allowance system in general practice was felt to fail the profession because it did not include needs assessment and so led to ad hoc education to fulfil the time requirements of the system rather than the needs of individual doctors or the profession as a whole. On the other hand, basing learning in a profession entirely on the assessment of needs is a dangerous and limiting tactic. So a balance must be struck.

Summary points

• Learning needs assessment is a crucial stage in the educational process that leads to changes in practice, and has become part of government policy for continuing professional development
• Learning needs assessment can be undertaken for many reasons, so its purpose should be defined and should determine the method used and the use made of findings
• Exclusive reliance on formal needs assessment could render education an instrumental and narrow process rather than a creative, professional one
• Different learning methods tend to suit different doctors and different identified learning needs
• Doctors already use a wide range of formal and informal ways of identifying their own learning needs as part of their ordinary practice
• These should be the starting point in designing formalised educational systems for professional improvement

Learning needs assessment in medicine

In 1998 both individual and organisational needs assessment became part of government policy in relation to the continuing professional development and personal development plans of all healthcare professionals. 2 Thus, it has a role in the clinical governance of the service 3 and is therefore much more than an educational undertaking. This integration of needs assessment, education, and quality assurance of the service was first made explicit in 1989 in relation to clinical audit, which would identify practices in need of improvement and ensure that educational and organisational interventions were made to address these needs. 4 Accordingly, audit was described as “essentially educational” and the educational process surrounding it described. 5

Long before these recent developments, needs assessment outside medicine was presented as an important part of managed education and learning contracts, which are the predecessors of the personal development plans to be developed for all NHS healthcare professionals. 6 In his descriptions of adult learning Knowles assumed (he did not claim to have research evidence) that learners needed to feel a necessity to learn and that identifying one's own learning needs was an essential part of self directed learning. 7 In medicine a doctor's motivation to learn would therefore derive from needs identified during his or her experience of clinical practice. So the pedigree and practice of learning needs assessment, if not the evidence, are well established.

The definition of need

As in most areas of education, for many years there has been intense debate about the definition, purpose, validity, and methods of learning needs assessment. 8 It might be to help curriculum planning, diagnose individual problems, assess student learning, demonstrate accountability, improve practice and safety, or offer individual feedback and educational intervention. Published classifications include felt needs (what people say they need), expressed needs (expressed in action) normative needs (defined by experts), and comparative needs (group comparison). 9 Other distinctions include individual versus organisational or group needs, clinical versus administrative needs, and subjective versus objectively measured needs. 10 The defined purpose of the needs assessment should determine the method used and the use made of findings.

Furthermore, even though the concept of educational needs assessment is enshrined in practice, policy, and the educational canon, several factors indicate the need for careful planning and research in this subject (see boxes ​ boxesB1 B1 and ​ andB2). B2 ). Exclusive reliance on formal needs assessment in educational planning could render education an instrumental and narrow process rather than a creative, professional one. This is especially so in a profession where there is inherent unpredictability and uncertainty. Members of any profession require wide knowledge and depth of experience—the relevance of some of which might not have been obvious at the time of learning. Certainly, learning needs can and should be identified on the basis of what has been experienced and of what more experienced members of the profession know to be relevant, but this must not deter other, more general or even speculative, learning that, at the time, seems to answer no specific need. Possibly no specific learning needs assessment would ever send a person to a large international conference on a generic subject (such as endocrinology, medical education, or management). It is, nevertheless, important that doctors attend such meetings and return with the unexpected and expected benefits that they accrue.

: Need for careful planning in needs assessment

• There is little evidence that needs assessment alone enhances educational effectiveness and outcomes, so it must be placed within the wider process of planned learning, relevance to practice, and reinforcement of learning in the appropriate context
• Formal needs assessment can identify only a narrow range of needs and might miss needs not looked for, so breadth and flexibility of needs assessment methods should be embraced
• In professional education it is not necessarily defensible to focus all learning on identified needs—wider professional learning not related to a specific need is also of fundamental value where practice is not predictable
• Individual and group learning needs are different—group learning needs may produce an average picture that fails to address important needs and interests of individual members of the group—so a balance is required. Each approach has its uses and effects, but each must be used for the right purpose
• Identifying individual learning needs, often not shared by others, may lead to an unimpressive cost-benefit analysis in terms of individually targeted use of educational resources if used inappropriately. Individual learning needs assessment is best used in the context of learning that occurs on an individual basis—such as in the relationship between general practitioner registrar and trainer

: Need for research into needs assessment in medical education

• What are the effects of and responses to needs assessment alone for students, trainees, and senior doctors at different stages of medical education?
• What is the relative validity, reliability, or utility of different formal and informal methods of learning needs assessment in medical education at any level?
• To what extent do needs assessment methods identify all important learning needs?
• What are the relative effects and efficacy of identifying group and individual learning needs?
• What methods of planning effective learning experiences are most effective on the basis of needs identified?

Methods of needs assessment

Although the literature generally reports only on the more formal methods of needs assessment, doctors use a wide range of informal ways of identifying learning needs as part of their ordinary practice. These should not be undervalued simply because they do not resemble research. Questionnaires and structured interviews seem to be the most commonly reported methods of needs assessment, but such methods are also used for evaluation, assessment, management, education, and now appraisal and revalidation. 11 Together, these formal and informal methods might make an effective battery where there is clarity of purpose. The Good CPD Guide details 46 formal and informal methods of self assessment (see box ​ boxB3 B3 ). 12

: Good CPD Guide 's classification of sources of needs assessment 12

The methods listed are both formal and informal, planned and opportunistic, showing that day to day work and encounters have the potential to generate needs as much as do formal methods. Formal needs assessment methods include critical incident techniques, gap analysis, objective knowledge and skills tests, observation, revalidation, self assessment, video assessment, and peer review. Such methods are often used to identify group needs. 14 , 15 Formal identification of needs can also arise from audit, morbidity patterns, adverse events, patient satisfaction surveys, and risk assessment. Most of these tools use quantitative methods that can generate computerised data and cover wider population ranges, but these are often unable to probe into the personal agendas and opinions of individuals.

Types of needs assessment

Methods of needs assessment can be classified into seven main types, each of which can take many different forms in practice.

Gap or discrepancy analysis

This formal method involves comparing performance with stated intended competencies—by self assessment, peer assessment, or objective testing—and planning education accordingly. 9 , 16 , 17

Reflection on action and reflection in action

Reflection on action is an aspect of experiential learning and involves thinking back to some performance, with or without triggers (such as videotape or audiotape), and identifying what was done well and what could have been done better. 18 , 19 The latter category indicates learning needs.

Reflection in action involves thinking about actual performance at the time that it occurs and requires some means of recording identified strengths and weaknesses at the time. The Canadian MOCOMP programme uses formalised reflection as its basic process. 20 Similarly, PUNs and DENs (see box ​ boxB3) B3 ) are well known in British general practice.

Self assessment by diaries, journals, log books, weekly reviews

This is an extension of reflection that involves keeping a diary or other account of experiences. 21 However, practice might show that such documents tend to be written nearer the time of their review than the time of the activity being recorded.

Peer review

This is rapidly becoming a favourite method. It involves doctors assessing each other's practice and giving feedback and perhaps advice about possible education, training, or organisational strategies to improve performance. The Good CPD Guide describes five types of peer review—internal, external, informal, multidisciplinary, and physician assessment. 11 The last of these is the most formal, involving rating forms completed by nominated colleagues, and shows encouraging levels of validity, reliability, and acceptability. 22 , 23

Observation

In more formal settings doctors can be observed performing specific tasks that can be rated by an observer, either according to known criteria or more informally. The results are discussed, and learning needs are identified. The observer can be a peer, a senior, or a disinterested person if the ratings are sufficiently objective or overlap with the observer's area of expertise (such as communication skills or management).

Critical incident review and significant event auditing

Although this technique is usually used to identify the competencies of a profession or for quality assurance, it can also be used on an individual basis to identify learning needs. 24 The method involves individuals identifying and recording, say, one incident each week in which they feel they should have performed better, analysing the incident by its setting, exactly what occurred, and the outcome and why it was ineffective.

Practice review

A routine review of notes, charts, prescribing, letters, requests, etc, can identify learning needs, especially if the format of looking at what is satisfactory and what leaves room for improvement is followed.

The difference between needs assessment and assessment

Needs assessment is not the same as assessment in the sense of examination of learning. Assessment systems that lead to academic or professional awards should show certain minimum characteristics, including measurement of performance against external criteria and standards, a decision on adequacy by an assessor, and standardised data gathering. 25 Needs assessment might sometimes have these characteristics, but it also might be based on practice, reflection, professional judgment, discussion, and informal data. Needs assessment methods that are limited by the standards of assessment will fall into the trap of assessing only a narrow range of needs.

Learning for needs

The main purpose of needs assessment must be to help educational planning, but this must not lead to too narrow a vision of learning. Learning in a profession is unlike any other kind of learning. Doctors live in a rich learning environment, constantly involved in and surrounded by professional interaction and conversation, educational events, information, and feedback. The search for the one best or “right” way of learning is a hopeless task, 1 especially if this is combined with attempting to “measure” observable learning. Research papers show, at best, the complexity of the process.

Multiple interventions targeted at specific behaviour result in positive change in that behaviour. 26 Exactly what those interventions are is less important than their multiplicity and targeted nature. On the other hand, different doctors use different learning methods to meet their individual needs. For example, in a study of 366 primary care doctors who identified recent clinical problems for which they needed more knowledge or skill to solve, 55 different learning methods were selected. 27 The type of problem turned out to be the major determinant of the learning method chosen, so there may not be one educational solution to identified needs.

Much of doctors' learning is integrated with their practice and arises from it. The style of integrated practice and learning (“situated learning”) develops during the successive stages of medical education. 28 The components of apprenticeship learning in postgraduate training are made up of many activities that may be regarded as part of practice (see box ​ boxB4 B4 ). 29 Senior doctors might also recognise much of their learning in some of these elements and could certainly add more—such as conversations with colleagues.

: Components of apprenticeship learning in postgraduate training 29

• Learning by doing
• Experience of seeing patients
• Building up personal knowledge and experience
• Discussing patients
• Managing patients
• Having errors corrected
• Making teaching points during service
• Listening to experts' explanations
• “Picking things up”
• Charismatic influences
• Learning clinical methods from practice
• Being questioned about thought and actions about patients
• Teaching by doing
• Using knowledge and skill
• Bite-size learning from “bits and pieces”
• Retrieving and applying knowledge stored in memory
• Learning from supervision
• Receiving feedback
• Presentation and summarising
• Observing experts working
• Learning from role models
• Learning from team interactions
• Hearing consultants thinking aloud
• Thinking about practice and patients

Thus, educational planning on the basis of identified needs faces real challenges in making learning appropriate to and integrated with professional style and practice. The first step in all of this is to recognise the needs assessment and learning that are a part of daily professional life in medicine and to formalise, highlight, and use these as the basis of future recorded needs assessment and subsequent planning and action, as well as integrating them with more formal methods of needs assessment to form a routine part of training, learning, and improving practice.

Editorial by Goldbeck-Wood and Peile

  Competing interests: None declared.

Henderson authorized as ACT WorkKeys Curriculum and Assessment Site

Henderson State University, in partnership with the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance, is proud to announce Henderson’s approval as an ACT WorkKeys Curriculum Site under the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services’ umbrella agreement with ACT.

This authorization marks a pivotal step forward in aligning educational outcomes with the practical needs of the workforce, ensuring that the region’s community members and students are equipped with the essential, job-related skills that are in high demand across the region.

“Henderson State is honored to offer the ACT WorkKeys Curriculum through our Educational Opportunity Center,” said Dr. Trey Berry, Henderson chancellor. “This program aligns with Henderson’s mission to prepare students for high-demand fields that drive community and economic development. We are grateful to partner with the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance to open the doors of opportunity and access for job seekers.”

Students over the age of 18 and local job seekers will have access to the WorkKeys assessments in areas such as Applied Math, Graphic Literacy, and Workplace Documents. Achieving National Career Readiness Certificates (NCRC) through these assessments can significantly improve employment opportunities for participants by demonstrating their skill levels to potential employers. Assessments are web-based, offered in both English and Spanish, and usually take one hour.

The site will be located at the Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) on Henderson’s campus in McBrien Hall, with Tim Hall, assistant director of the EOC, serving as the curriculum administrator. Hours of instruction and assessment will be on Mondays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-4 p.m.; and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Appointments can be scheduled with Hall outside of these hours based on staff availability.