Program Planning

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Needs Assessment

• Program Planning

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What is a Needs Assessment?

• the process by which those who are planning
  programs can determine what health problems might
  exist in any given group of people.
• the process of determining, analyzing and
  prioritizing needs, and in turn, identifying and
  implementing solution strategies to resolve
  high-priority needs.

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Two types of Health Needs

• Service Needs
• Things that health professionals believe a given
  population must have to be able to do in order to
  solve a health problem
• Service Demands
• Things those in the target population must have
  to do in order to solve the health problem

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Questions to Consider

• Who is the priority or target population?
• What are the major areas addressed in the
  program?
• What is observable or measurable to generate the
  evidence?
• How will the evidence be collected?
• From whom or where will the evidence be obtained?
• What kind of date is needed to substantiate the
  knowledge/service gap?
• How will the data be assessed?

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Questions to answer

• Core Concepts What are the major areas this
  program addresses?
• Key Indicators What can we observe or measure to
  generate evidence?
• Methods How will we collect the evidence? (In
  this class we will use a survey, interview, or
  focus group)
• Sources From whom or where will we obtain this
  information?
• Source Campus Compact

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Gathering Data

• Secondary Data
• Already Exists
• Inexpensive to access
• May not help determine the true needs of the
  priority population
• Primary Data
• You are the researcher
• Data is specific to priority population
• May cost money

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Secondary Data

• Sources of Secondary Data
• Government Agencies
• Census, births, deaths, disease, etc.
• U.S. Department of Commerce
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  and the National Center for Health Statistics
  (NCHS)
• State and Local Agencies
• Nongovernment Agencies and Organizations
• Existing Records
• Literature
• Peer Reviewed Journals (EBSCO)

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Primary Data

• Sources of Primary Data
• Single-Step or Cross-Sectional Surveys
• Written questionnaires, telephone interviews,
  face-to-face interviews, or electronic interviews
• From priority population, significant others or
  opinion leaders, key informants
• Multistep Survey
• Series of questionnaires
• Community Forum
• Large gathering of people from priority
  population
• i.e. students, parents, (PTA), nurses

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Primary Data

• Sources cont.
• Focus Group
• Smaller gathering (8-12) from priority
  population
• i.e. used in political process, good way to
  personalize
• Nominal Group Process
• Highly structured group (5-7 people) representing
  priority population ensures participation
• Observation
• Planners and workers observe behaviors of
  population such as diet, exercise, and safety
• Self-Assessments
• i.e. breast self-examination (BSE) testicular
  self-examination (TSE), self-monitoring for skin
  cancer and health assessments (Has)

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Preparing for the Assessment

• What is your objective in doing the assessment?
• Decide what you want to know and what is the best
  way to solicit the information. In this class we
  will be using three popular assessment
  techniques survey, focus groups, and interviews.
• Develop a budget
• Prepare your questions and continually modify
  your questions
• Develop a draft of your assessment
• Pilot test your assessment
• Design the final form of your survey, focus
  group, or interview questions.

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Criteria to Keep in Mind When Developing and
Conducting a Survey

• What is your objective in gathering the data?
• What type of information do you need to gather?
• What is your priority audience/group?
• What is the economic and/or time cost?
• How much time do you have to gather the data?
• Who will do what? Describe your personnel

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Survey

• Decide on the format of the survey multiple
  choice, short answer, checklist,
  quality/internsity scale, frequency scale,
  ranking.
• Design questions to be closed ended to avoid
  confusion
• Survey should be short and clear, to encourage
  participation and completion.
• Always include information regarding what the
  program is, what will the data be used for,
  approximate completion time, and a
  confidentiality statement along with contact
  information.

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Focus Group

• A Focus Group is a qualitative approach to
  learning about the intended audience. People are
  normally randomly selected or recruited from the
  target population. A script is created and the
  information that is gathered by a moderator is
  held in confidence.

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Steps to Considerin creating a Focus Group

• Create a descriptive statement introducing the
  program and partnership and why the data is being
  gathered. Include a statement on confidentiality
  and assuring their anonymity.
• Create open-ended questions that stimulate
  organized discussion
• Keep the focus of the discussion on the questions
  and program
• Review the data with the community partner
• Write up a summary of the results of the focus
  group

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Interview

• Interviews are a more personal way of collecting
  data and they
• are either conducted individually or in small
  groups. They also
• can be conducted electronically or over the
  telephone. They offer
• a way to gather information with children and
  groups where
• language may be problematic. Consider the
  following
• Who is the target population?
• Will the interview be structure or
  semi-structured?
• How will the interview be conducted?
• What information is being collected and how will
  it be analyzed?

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Interview Steps to Consider

• Create a descriptive statement introducing the
  program and partnership and why the data is being
  gathered. Include a statement on confidentiality
  and assuring their anonymity.
• Predetermine the questions and consider time it
  will take to conduct the interview.
• Conduct a trial run to clarify confusing terms
• Consider recording the interview and seek
  permission from participants.
• Transcribe notes from interviews as soon as
  possible and make the results available to the
  participants.
• Create a means of categorizing major points to
  facilitate ease in understanding the data.