Validation of Training Need Assessment Questionnaire Among Health Care Workers in Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health Care in Low-Income Countries
Document Type
Article
Department
School of Nursing and Midwifery, East Africa
Abstract
Background: Continuous professional development (CPD) trainings have been reported to enhance health care workers’ knowledge and skills, improve retention and recruitment, improve quality of patient care and reduce patients’ mortality. This calls for validated training needs assessment tools for facilitating the design of effective CPD programs.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using self-administered questionnaires. The survey involved selected Reproductive, Maternal and Neonatal Health (RMNH) health care workers from 7 hospitals, 12 of 51 health centers and 17 of 292 dispensaries within eight districts of Mwanza Region, Tanzania. The training needs assessment (TNA) tool adapted from the Hennessy-Hicks’ Training Needs Assessment Questionnaire (TNAQ) was used for data collection.
Results: A total of 153 healthcare workers participated in this study. The majority of participants were females 83% (127) with average age of 39 years. Nurses formed a majority of participants 76% (n=115) with relatively similar mean duration in service or in RMNH of 7.9 years. The reliability of the adapted TNAQ was found to be 0.954. Relatedly, indexes for construct validity indicated that CFI was equal to 1, Chi-square Mean/Degree of Freedom (CMIN/DF) was equal to 0.000 and Mean Square Error Approximation (RMSEA) was equal to 0.185.
Conclusion: The adapted TNAQ appear to be reliable and valid for identifying professional training needs of health care workers in RMNH health care settings. The tool has a considerable level of psychometric properties that makes it suitable for assessing the training needs among health care workers of different cadres. However, the applicability of the TNAQ in the wider health care systems remains unclear. Future studies with a large sample size are required to test the use of TNAQ in wider health care systems and learning opportunities.
Publication (Name of Journal)
BMC Health Services Research
Recommended Citation
Mwansisya, T. E., Mbekenga, C., Isangula, K., Mwasha, L., Pallangyo, E., Edwards, G., ... & Mrema, S. (2020). Validation of Training Need Assessment Questionnaire Among Health Care Workers in Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health Care in Low-Income Countries. BMC Health Services Research
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.