Educational needs assessment of managers working in teaching and private hospitals

Introduction: Hospital managers, as one of the most important health care workers, are the subject of continuous education. In some countries around the world, health management education is an important part of health reforms. The aim of present research is to perform evidence-based studies based on assessing hospital managers’ needs. Therefore, it should be considered that educational need assessment regarding hospital managers is essential in today’s health care management. Methods: A total of 26 hospital managers were surveyed using a data gathering form (questionnaire) including 59 open questions designed in order to obtain data in 3 different areas. These included managers’ insight towards job duties and the capabilities required to fulfill their duty along with educational needs determined by managers. The next step involved presenting standard description of job duties to hospitals managers and asking them to document their educational needs regarding capabilities required to fulfill their duties. The standard description of job duties originated from ISO 9001 certified hospitals. For each manager, a score ranging from 0 to 19 was attained. For each correct matched statement, a positive point was considered and in the case of unmatched statements, managers received no points. Results: Out of 26 participating managers, only 20 did state the educational needs of hospitals managers. In describing job duties of hospital managers, the mean scores regarding hospital managers of public sector was 10.27 while it was 8 with private hospital managers. Conclusion: The findings of our study indicate that hospital managers as the leaders of the most sophisticated health care facilities delivering expensive complicated services need proper training regarding job competency. Therefore, it seems that continuous need assessment in this area should be carried out.