This document discusses general needs assessment for curriculum development. It explains that a general needs assessment identifies the difference between how a health care problem is currently addressed and how it should be addressed. The document also discusses different types of needs, including normative, felt, expressed, and created needs. It outlines the steps for curriculum development, which include problem identification, general needs assessment of learners, setting goals and objectives, implementation, and evaluation. Key aspects of needs assessment are identifying the current approach through job analysis and determining the ideal approach through task analysis.

1. General Needs
Assessment
Dr. Shahram Yazdani
sh_yaz@yahoo.com

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“Need" is a value judgement that some
group has a problem that can (should)
be addressed.

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Whose value judgement?
 Normative need - an experts opinion,
 Felt need - client self-assessment,
 Expressed need -(behavior)- use or non-use of
services/facilities,
 Comparative need -relative to a reference or
peer group.
 Created need - determined by others and
accepted without question, desire or prior
knowledge.

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Needs and Educational Programs
Needs DemandsEducational Programs
Health SystemUniversities of Medical Sciences
ProvidersStudents

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Curriculum Development
Problem Identification and
General Needs Assessment
Needs Assessment of
Targeted Learner
Setting Goals and
Objectives
Educational Strategies
Implementation
Evaluation and Feedback

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Problem Identification
 The first step in designing a curriculum is
to identify and characterize the health care
problem that will be addressed by
curriculum
 How it is currently being addressed?
 And how it should be addressed?

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Problem identification
 The difference between how the health
care problem is currently being addressed
and how should be addressed is called a
general needs assessment

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The spectrum of community needs
Community Needs: Balanced Coverage

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Community Needs- Imbalanced Coverage
Overlaps
‫٭‬‫٭‬
‫٭‬
‫٭‬
‫٭‬
Service Gaps

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Community Needs: Different Approaches
Service Gap Analysis

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Task Overlap Analysis
Community Needs: Different Approaches

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General Needs Assessment
 Having defined health care problem, the
next task is to assess current efforts to
address the problem.
 The process of current approach to
problem is referred to as “job analysis”.
 Assessment of the job that is currently
being done to deal with a problem.

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Job Analysis
Community Needs: Different Approaches

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Ideal Approach
 Having determined the current approach to
the problem, the next task is to determine
the ideal approach to the problem referred
to “task analysis”
 Assessment of the specific tasks that need
to be performed.

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Task Analysis
 Task analysis is a process that is executed in order
to better understand job tasks.
 It involves breaking down the job tasks into their
consecutive steps or component parts.
 Once broken into parts, each element is analyzed
to determine its relative importance and criticalness
in terms of accomplishing the job task.

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Task Analysis
Community Needs: Different Approaches

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Midproviders
Generalists
Specialists
Subspecialists
Critical Band Analysis
Community Needs: Different Approaches

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Definitions
• Task: A Specific Operation
• Position: A Group of Tasks Performed by
One Person
• Job: A Group of Similar Positions in a
Single Organization
• Occupation: A Group of Similar Jobs in
Various Organizations

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Service Gap
Service already assigned
to a Job
Service not assigned
to a Job yet
Service appropriate
to the Job
Service not
appropriate to the Job
Work Conditions
appropriate
Work Conditions
inappropriate
Providers competent
to provide service
Providers incompetent
to provide service
Revise Pregraduate
and CME Curriculum
Workforce is
enough
Workforce is
not enough
Consider Workforce
Redistribution
Consider Training and
Employment of more
workforce
Change work
conditions Assign the
service to the
defined Job
Define a new Job
Service does not
match to any of
defined Job
Service match
to one of
defined Job

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Thank You !
Any Question ?