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The
Four-Step Needs Assessment
Step 1. Analyze the current health-related knowledge,
problems experienced, and needs of congregation members. There
are two things to do in this step:
- Determine what congregation member actually need, versus
what they perceive as a need, or what they “want”. For example,
do you want all individuals to stop smoking, or is it more important
to prevent the onset of smoking in teens?
- Identify what information, program or activity will
help fill the gap between the current situation and the congregation’s
needs. The type of this information will help you identify your purposes
and objectives. In the example above, if the real issue is not smoking
per say, and you simply go forward and develop a non-smoking program,
you might be wasting your time.
What are you looking for? Here are some questions
to ask to help you determine how to focus your efforts?
- Current Problems. What are the major
or most-often encountered health-related problems or needs experienced
by congregation members?
- Future Problems. Are there problems
are needs which are not currently considered “major”, but
are expected to rise to the forefront in the future?
- Opportunities. Is there specific programming
or new information that would generally improve the lives of most congregation
members?
- New directions. Should you take a new
approach to your congregational nursing program? Or, is the current
focus what the congregation needs the most?
Examples of congregational health-related needs assessments
can be downloaded:
Sample Health Needs Assessment
1 (pdf 44KB)
Sample Health Needs Assessment
2 (pdf 44KB)
Sample Health Needs
Assessment 3 (pdf 80KB)
Health Needs Assessment Survey
Report (pdf 164KB)
Step 2. Prioritize the information you learned
through the analysis to help you decide on future programs and
activities. The first step should have produced a large list of needs
for health-related programming and other interventions. The next step
is to examine these and determine their priority in light of the reality
of what you can ACTUALLY do. Ask yourself: Are the identified needs real?
Are they worth addressing in light of your capabilities? Which are most
urgent? If you identify some of the needs as of relatively low importance,
you should not worry about addressing those immediately – but, rather,
devote your time to addressing those issues that will have more of an
impact for your congregation members.
Step 3. Identify how you can best focus on these
new opportunities. Now that you have prioritized and focused
on your congregation’s critical needs, you need to identify how
to best address them. Ask yourself: Who (in the congregation and in the
community) can help you? Is this a broad-scale issue that has been popularized
in the media? Are there programs already being conducted in your community?
Can I join forces with anyone? What are the resources available to me?
Step 4. Plan and execute programming.
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