Needs assessment. An overview for health educators

The health professions can no longer afford to stand back and plan continuing education offerings without documenting the need for such offerings. Emphasis on conservation of time, money, and human resources as well as improvement of patient care provides the rationale for including needs assessment in curriculum planning. Some of the tools and techniques used in the health professions are quality assessment, critical incident techniques, surveys, and literature searches. Each of these methods tends to reflect different types of needs, real or felt, and each has its advantages and limitations.