humn 8660

The needs assessment is simply an outline of the needs to be accomplished in the process of achieving the targets. It serves as a tool for use during planning, resource allocation, and decision making. For instance, in the community sensitization organization for life protection and care of lifestyle diseases, it is possible to develop a needs assessment for the organization. Consider the steps below.

Steps for conducting a needs assessment

Steps for conducting assessment in an organization includes;

· Clearly defined objectives-This is about ‘why needs assessment ‘For example the objective for the organization above can be;

-Understanding the causes of lifestyle disease.

-To determine the methods of prevention and care for diabetic patients

· Make sure you are realistic about the capacity and resources needed-This means that the availability of resources will greatly influence the need assessment activities you can conduct.

· Have the target group-For instance, it's not possible to plan and execute the assessment when you don't know the audience you are going to handle. Knowledge of target audiences offers the assessor a chance to determine methods of data collection and also develop a means of encouraging them to participate in the needs assessment.

· Exercise broad reasoning when analyzing and summarizing results-It means one should reflect on the data and consider each of your needs assessment objectives particularly. For instance, the assessor can address the factors that contribute to the rise in the cases of Diabetic patients and maybe use visuals such as charts to make the point easily understood.

· Inquire for reply-This means involving the affected group by making them part of the whole assessment. It is important to engage the community as partners in understanding and translating the results from the assessment. This will make the members of the community have a chance in the bid to determine the design of the assessment.

· Disseminate the assessment-This is the process of sharing findings both with external stakeholders and also internal to make sure all are updated about the met and unmet targets.

· Take action based on the needs-This means review of the objectives by checking what is achieved on the goals that are pending so as you can take the necessary action.

Stakeholders you would contact and why contact each?

Stakeholders are those individuals who are affected by/have a direct effect on an effort. These stakeholders can be of the following types;

-Primary stakeholders-for instance in a community-based organization for lifestyle diseases, they can be the victims of hypertension/ diabetes.IT is prudent to contact this group of individual because they are directly involved in the organization

-Secondary stakeholders-are the individuals who are not directly affected by the actions of the organization. For example, those individuals who are healthy and also don't have kin who suffer from lifestyle diseases. This means that they might not have the burden of contributing to the organization.

Key stakeholder-For example those staff members who with the organization or the individuals who are funding the program. This will help in funding, planning, and execution of the duties. Therefore, this means that consulting them is very important since they are the managers, staff, donors, or appointed/elected government officials.

Stakeholder survey

A stakeholder survey is a method of stakeholder engagement that focuses usually on group discussions and key informant interviews.

A stakeholder survey involves several steps. These are;

· Defining objectives-this This is about determining the purpose or a question that drives the organization in getting the answer. For example, why is there an increase in mortality due to hypertension?

· Stakeholder mapping-refers to the grouping of stakeholders. For instance, internal and external stakeholders are given different levels of participation and also a responsibility.

· A sampling of stakeholders for survey-here you determine the sample of respondents for each case. This should be random to avoid bias.

· Designing the survey instrument-its about designing the questionnaire for use during the survey.

· Data entry and analysis-this should be done in the line with the objectives for the survey. Software such as SPSS can be used for data analysis.

· Presentation of findings and recommendations for action-This findings should be presented to the key stakeholders simply and understandably.

· Follow up-this should be formulated by the stakeholders involved to ensure the expected change is realized.

Some of the questions that could fit in the above steps are;

The questions should of a different type, for instance, you can start with Open-ended question like;

-What another method can we use to sensitize people on the impacts o lifestyle diseases?

Such a question offers respondents the freedom to express themselves thus able to understand their thoughts and needs.

Closed-ended survey questions to capture a given response from the client. These questions are Simple and that an individual is subjected to answer the following question if he answers the fast one (Oudsi et, l. 2018). For example;

-What are you using a diabetic test kit for?

1. Personal use only

2. Business

3. Both

liker scale questions are used to evaluate the level of agreement. In this scale, there is a median number to tell the point of neutrality. For example;

-How strongly do you agree with the following statement? Community lifestyle disease prevention is efficient and helpful.

1. Strongly agree

2. Somewhat disagree

3. Neither agree or disagree

4. Somewhat agree

5. Strongly agree.

Rating scale questions are used to check the degree of satisfaction of the clients. For instance, you can form a question to check how much clients are likely to recommend individuals to join/transact with the organization.

Yes or no questions are straight forward and that relevantly seek to know one's stand. For instance (Balneaves et, l .2018);

Was the community sensitization on lifestyle diseases useful?

Are happy about our medical care services on lifestyle diseases?

Basic demographic questions seek to know about actual figures detail. For example;

How many people are suffering from lifestyle diseases such as hypertension/Diabetes in your extended family?

Customer questions such as which other option do you consider better for community-based care for lifestyle diseases?

Rationale for questionnaire

A questionnaire is cost-effective in that it intends to collect responses from a large group of individuals in a short while. It's cheap and easily affordable because its only cost is maybe printing or online setting if it's done online (Alqatani et, l. 2018)

.

The questionnaire is effective because it allows clients to respond confidently and privately thus able to gather sensitive information in a given group of people.

Ways to engage stakeholders in the survey

Since there are different stakeholders in an organization, all of them should be utilized at different levels (Taheroost, 2016).

For instance; Managers should be given responsibilities such as planning and regulating the assessment process

Besides other administrative roles such as financing the evaluation process can be discussed in stakeholders meeting so that directions are given on how to spend on the process.

Stakeholders can be made part and puzzle of the internal evaluation team which assesses organization operations and give feedback on met/unmet objectives.

References

Alqahtani, M. M., Kashoo, F. Z., & Ahmad, F. (2018). Current scenario of evidence-based practice and rationale of the preferred approach in stroke rehabilitation among physiotherapists in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional survey. Saudi Journal for Health Sciences, 7(1), 53.

Balneaves, L. G., Alraja, A., Ziemianski, D., McCuaig, F., & Ware, M. (2018). A national needs assessment of Canadian nurse practitioners regarding cannabis for therapeutic purposes. Cannabis and cannabinoid research, 3(1), 66-73.

Qudsi, R. A., Roberts, H. J., Bhashyam, A. R., Losina, E., Bae, D. S., Alexis, F., & Dyer, G. S. (2018). A self-reported needs assessment survey of pediatric orthopedic education in Haiti. Journal of surgical education, 75(1), 140-146.

Taherdoost, H. (2016). Validity and reliability of the research instrument; how to test the validation of a questionnaire/survey in research. How to Test the Validation of a Questionnaire/Survey in a Research (August 10, 2016).