[Assessing educational needs of nurse managers affiliated to state hospitals]

ABSTRACT

Educational programmes are designed to meet educational needs of learners. Therefore, need identification is the first step in educational planning. Nurses need new skills considering how rapidly the science borders are expanding. Identifying educational needs of nurse managers could be an effective way to empower them. This survey aimed at determining the educational needs of nurse managers of state hospitals, through Delphi method and job analysis. The study utilized mixed method by combing Delphi method and job analysis to determine educational needs of nurse managers. 20 nurse managers drawn from universities of medical sciences were recruited to the study. With reference to nurse managers' task description -approved by Ministry of Health and Medical Education- educational needs were discovered based on ISO 10015 [launched by Ministry of Health for all job categories]. Educational needs of nurse managers were categorized in two groups of personal and organizational needs. Personal needs included skills in lecturing, article writing, English conversation and translation as well as running meetings. Organizational needs consisted of IT, Nursing ethic and law, quality assessment of wards, quality improvement in nursing care, standards of structure, equipments and human resources, crisis management, health education, HIS system, hospital infection control, nursing care procedure, management principles, human resource management, interview technique, research methods, statistics, SPSS software, health economics, teamwork and teambuilding, educational methods, religious practices and adjustments, educational need assessment, comprehensive evaluation, change management, critical thinking, stress management, communication skills, decision making techniques, problem solving and time management. Since the study revealed that significant needs in performing professional tasks of nurse managers have not been met, the results could be applied in developing educational programmes for nurse managers of university hospitals. The mixed method and educational need assessment model used in this study, could be used in assessing educational needs of other managers