HENNESSY-HICKS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE AND MANUAL
Training assessment tool
Advances in medical technology and health care, together with changes in disease patterns and population demands, mean that it is important to ensure that all health professionals are regularly updated, trained and developed, so that they can deliver the best quality care. Yet increasing demands create pressure on limited resources, so it is essential that training and development are targeted at the most appropriate professionals and at the skills which will be of optimum value to patients and the community. Making sure that precious educational resources are used in the most effective way requires a systematic approach to assessing health professionals’ training needs. The Hennessy-Hicks Training Needs Analysis Questionnaire was developed as a means of rigorously evaluating health care professionals’ training requirements and using these results to prioritise education and development in a way that meets local needs.
The questionnaire, which is robust and reliable, measures a range of clinical, managerial, interpersonal, administrative and research/audit activities and can be used with individuals, teams or whole organisations. It provides information about current performance levels, the skill areas most in need of development and the ways in which this might best be achieved. The information can be used in priority-setting and policy development, educational commissioning, individual performance reviews, as well as to assess the value and impact of professional development programmes. It has been designed to be flexible, allowing it to be adapted for use within any setting and for any purpose. Full details of the questionnaire, how to use it, how to analyse the information and how to customise it for use are provided in this online manual.