Training Needs Assessment of Reproductive Health and Family Planning Leaders of Leadership Development Programs in Pakistan

Abstract

The issue of workforce training and competency is central to the success of any public health system. The first step in designing training is to conduct a need assessment for an effective training program. In this research, we have accessed the training needs of the leaders of Leadership Development Program for mobilizing reproductive health; the vision of program was to develop a critical mass of diverse leaders, who can work individually and collectively and their efforts can improve reproductive health options and overall quality of life, especially for vulnerable populations in Pakistan. A cross-sectional study design was used to collect data by means of self-administered questionnaires from Reproductive Health and family planning leaders of the Leadership Development program from all over Pakistan. A total of 40 reproductive and family planning leaders participated after informed consent through non-probability convenience sampling. It was found that responding to felt needs is important for improving performance in health care system. Uses of practical, problem based learning methods are generally not included in the trainings. The priority areas in the current health scenario of Pakistan as identified by the study participants include training in disaster management, budget management, emergency preparedness and monitoring and evaluation. Need of communication skills training for health education was also highlighted for better reproductive health of the Pakistani population. The study indicated that training needs of Reproductive health and family planning leaders were heterogeneous and differed within professions by the tasks performed. Therefore, it is important to assess the tasks performed and training needs in leadership program participants in order to allocate training resources appropriately. There should be a permanent system for reviewing training needs.