Thinking it through early on can save a lot of time and create a smooth and efficient research study. Each and every institution is unique and has its own set of policies, procedures, and standards for conducting market research. Depending on the answers to the following questions, the needs assessment may take on different forms or procedures. Are there available guidelines from the institution for conducting a needs assessment?
What are the expectations of the administration for specific aspects of the survey, e. Are there individuals who must approve the materials prior to conducting the needs assessment?
Specifically, is there a specific administrator who must approve or oversee this process? Must this market research be formally approved by the Institutional Review Board that oversees research conducted by members of the institution? Are there other programs that have conducted needs assessments prior to their approval? If so, would these programs be willing to share their materials to aid in the planning process? Are there administrative offices that can be of assistance in the various stages of the market survey such as identifying a market e.
Who will direct and coordinate the research? Are there faculty who would be willing to assist by simply collecting data in their classes? Will these team members volunteer their services or will they receive compensation see below? How will the survey materials be paid for and produced? Will survey participants be compensated or volunteer? Will the team members receive compensation or release time for their efforts?
How will funds be procured for the creation and administration of the survey materials? Could the market research project be used as a hands-on learning experience for students engaged in business, marketing, statistics, behavioral sciences or research courses? For example, participating faculty may integrate the market research project into their courses to teach students how to develop and administer survey research as well as and analyze data. Advanced students could earn independent study credit while learning about the process of conducting research.
Every institution is different, and in the case of the needs assessment conducted at Tri-C, this particular trajectory toward completing the needs assessment was based on the fact that needs assessments were a relatively new expectation of the curriculum office. Indeed, an informal survey of other peace and conflict management programs yielded very little precedent for conducting this type of market survey at other institutions.
Only two other programs at Tri-C had conducted prior needs assessments, and one of these programs was kind enough to share materials and information to assist in the process. There were few explicit expectations for approving the survey, conducting the survey, and reporting the results of the survey. Faculty, staff, and administration volunteered their time and efforts to assist in the process of conducting the formal needs assessment described hereafter.
The market for any proposed curriculum in peace and conflict management has at least two segments. The first segment involves the market for students who will actually enroll in the curriculum and develop the peace and conflict management knowledge and skills gained through the curriculum.
The second segment involves the market for the knowledge and skills gained through completing the certificate. The lead evaluator is ultimately responsible for engaging stakeholders, consultants, and other collaborators who bring the skills and interests needed to plan and conduct the evaluation.
Although this staff person should have the skills necessary to competently coordinate evaluation activities, he or she can choose to look elsewhere for technical expertise to design and implement specific tasks.
However, developing in-house evaluation expertise and capacity is a beneficial goal for most public health organizations. The lead evaluator should be willing and able to draw out and reconcile differences in values and standards among stakeholders and to work with knowledgeable stakeholder representatives in designing and conducting the evaluation.
Seek additional evaluation expertise in programs within the health department, through external partners e. You can also use outside consultants as volunteers, advisory panel members, or contractors.
External consultants can provide high levels of evaluation expertise from an objective point of view. Important factors to consider when selecting consultants are their level of professional training, experience, and ability to meet your needs. Be sure to check all references carefully before you enter into a contract with any consultant. To generate discussion around evaluation planning and implementation, several states have formed evaluation advisory panels. Advisory panels typically generate input from local, regional, or national experts otherwise difficult to access.
Such an advisory panel will lend credibility to your efforts and prove useful in cultivating widespread support for evaluation activities.
Evaluation team members should clearly define their respective roles. Informal consensus may be enough; others prefer a written agreement that describes who will conduct the evaluation and assigns specific roles and responsibilities to individual team members. Either way, the team must clarify and reach consensus on the:.
This manual is organized by the six steps of the CDC Framework. Each chapter will introduce the key questions to be answered in that step, approaches to answering those questions, and how the four evaluation standards might influence your approach.
The main points are illustrated with one or more public health examples that are composites inspired by actual work being done by CDC and states and localities. Together, they build a house over a multi-week period. At the end of the construction period, the home is sold to the family using a no-interest loan. Lead poisoning is the most widespread environmental hazard facing young children, especially in older inner-city areas.
Even at low levels, elevated blood lead levels EBLL have been associated with reduced intelligence, medical problems, and developmental problems. The main sources of lead poisoning in children are paint and dust in older homes with lead-based paint. Public health programs address the problem through a combination of primary and secondary prevention efforts.
A typical secondary prevention program at the local level does outreach and screening of high-risk children, identifying those with EBLL, assessing their environments for sources of lead, and case managing both their medical treatment and environmental corrections. However, these programs must rely on others to accomplish the actual medical treatment and the reduction of lead in the home environment.
A common initiative of state immunization programs is comprehensive provider education programs to train and motivate private providers to provide more immunizations. A typical program includes a newsletter distributed three times per year to update private providers on new developments and changes in policy, and provide a brief education on various immunization topics; immunization trainings held around the state conducted by teams of state program staff and physician educators on general immunization topics and the immunization registry; a Provider Tool Kit on how to increase immunization rates in their practice; training of nursing staff in local health departments who then conduct immunization presentations in individual private provider clinics; and presentations on immunization topics by physician peer educators at physician grand rounds and state conferences.
Minimalist theory of evaluation: The least theory that practice requires. American Journal of Evaluation ; Utilization-focused evaluation: The new century text. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, Study of participatory research in health promotion: Review and recommendations for the development of participatory research in health promotion in Canada. Ottawa, Canada : Royal Society of Canada , Concretely identifying a few, key objectives at the onset will help you identify your needs assessment activities—including who to collect data from and what questions to ask.
The objectives in the breastfeeding example show that the needs assessment should collect data from first-time mothers as well as from health care providers and, possibly, lactation consultants and social service providers in the community. Consider how much time, money and staff capacity you can devote to the needs assessment.
Also, how many staff are working on the project and what percentage of their time are they devoting to the project? The availability of resources will greatly impact the needs assessment activities you are able to conduct.
Over a three month-period, NICHQ reached stakeholders, including funders, participants, staff and project directors. Through focus groups, surveys, and interviews, NICHQ captured their current state of knowledge and readiness as well as successes and challenges related to undertaking the aims of the Healthy Start project.
After collecting, cleaning, and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data, NICHQ synthesized findings and produced a comprehensive report shared with project stakeholders and funders. Now, NICHQ can continue to provide technical assistance that is appropriately tailored to support grantees.
Given your objectives and resources, consider the target audiences and data sources that will help you assess your needs. Is it most effective to administer a survey to a wide range of community members, to hold several focus groups with hospital administrators, examine existing reports, or directly observe project participants? Conclusions: The data from this survey indicate a need for formalized nutrition education in primary care training.
From the survey data results, the next steps include building a nutrition curriculum to be implemented in the residency program and potentially set a standard for nutrition education in the North Carolina region and beyond.
Keywords: Nutrition curriculum; preventative medicine; primary care; residency training.
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