Centralized continuing education programs: assessing interdisciplinary learning needs

Centralized educational programs offer the potential of cost savings to hospitals and also ensure that important topics of concern to all disciplines are discussed on a hospitalwide basis. Yet the precision of a hospitalwide needs assessment relates directly to the sensitivity of the assessment procedure and its ability to analyze the perceived learning needs of the professional staff. To organize and rank learning needs, HERC staff at Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital first created a universe of all perceived learning needs, which was accomplished through interviews with each staff member. After the universe was created, needs were refined and clustered, and a short list of ten institutional needs was identified. Needs were ranked by importance to individuals and to departments, and the reliability of respondents' perceptions was tested using statistical analyses. As a result, a list of common priorities was obtained. This needs assessment approach is used annually at Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital.