The number needed to teach: A framework for health professions education

Health professions education is continually limited by financial resources with increasing demands for accountability. Judicious resource allocation across competing demands rests on frameworks for analyzing and comparing costs and outcomes.

We suggest health professions educators use the number needed to teach (NNTe) for reporting and communicating such analyses for teaching and learning.

The NNTe has the potential to improve reporting and understanding of effectiveness of teaching and learning, similar to how the number needed to treat (NNTr) has improved communication of the effectiveness of clinical interventions. Prior widespread understanding of NNTr will likely allow NNTe to be easily grasped by most clinical educators and those responsible for resource allocation decisions. This article describes the origins of and parallels between NNTr and NNTe, which summarizes and presents in concrete terms to educators, learners, and institutional leadership the investment required to prevent or produce a specific outcome. The calculation and interpretation of NNTe is demonstrated using examples from published real-world data, and its potential benefits, limitations and applications are explored.

Next steps include explorations of the variety of contexts and comparisons that can be interpreted using NNTe and its corollary, the Number Need to Harm, and how recipients interpret and act upon NNTe.