Training Needs Assessment of Academic Teaching Staff in College of Medicine, Najran University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2021

Abstract

Medical colleges strive to improve the competencies of their teaching staff through conducting impactful research, delivering teaching with high quality, and providing community service and development. These can be achieved when designing training according to the needs. Assessing the gap before implementing any training activities, maximizes the resources and focuses to the point. This study aimed to assess the training needs of Academic teaching staff (ATS) in the College of Medicine at Najran University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by selecting competencies and giving suggested priorities for implementation. A descriptive study to determine the training needs of ATS used an adapted, validated Hennessy-Hicks Questionnaire on thirty tasks covering main five categories, research/audit, communication/teamwork, clinical tasks, administration, and management/supervisory tasks. The questionnaire was divided into two sections, the importance, and performance, and then the differences between the two were calculated. The Questionnaire was distributed to all available staff, the respondents were 80 out of 93 (86%), 33 were basic sciences and 47 were clinical staff. Results showed an urgent need for all research, management, and clinical domains for clinical staff and only two tasks in the research domain for basic sciences staff. The training committee and quality unit in the college must prioritize their investment and efforts to improve ATS with emphasis on research, and leadership competencies.