Training-needs analysis of general practice nurses – evaluation by the primary care trust

Set out the outcomes you expect or aspire to:
-eg the training provided for general practice nurses (GPNs) working in general practices in your primary care
trust (PCT) enables them to feel confident and be competent to perform their everyday tasks and take on the
new roles and responsibilities that practices require of GPNs.

Describe your objectives for this evaluation:
-eg to check that a PCT-wide training-needs assessment is sufficiently objective and inclusive to ensure that
the right training is commissioned, provided and/or signposted to GPNs working in general practices by this
PCT, to fit them for purpose.

Method(s):
-complete all or part of sections A, B and/or C of this Tool to evaluate the range of training provided to GPNs
in the past 12 months.

Compare your answers to the questions below with the responses given by your local GPNs to
Tool - Learning and personal development - evaluation by a GPN about their learning and development needs, or the general practice employers to the needs assessment part of
Tool - Training of GPNs - evaluation by a general practice employer .

A. What was the content of the training-needs assessment of GPNs in your PCT? Did you:

Did you:

undertake a PCT-wide, training-needs analysis of your GPNs and the rest of the staff working in general practice?
were the personal development plans (PDPs) of GPNs part of the training-needs analysis? Did you check the quality of the way that PDPs were drawn up?
did GPNs’ supervisors and line managers contribute to the training-needs analysis?
did you incorporate the expectations of the NHS for new ways of working and patient choice, as specified in key policy documents in the training-needs analysis?

B. How did the training-needs analysis work out?

Did more than half of general practices contribute information about their GPNs’ learning needs from general practice employers or clinical supervisors?
Did a representative number of GPNs who work in general practices in your PCT (you set the exact number) contribute to the training-needs analysis?
Did you have a working group review the training needs elicited from frontline staff, practice business plans and PCT and policy documents, in order to make valid conclusions?
Did you communicate the results of your PCT-wide, training-needs assessment to all general practice employers in your PCT and involve them in planning learning activities for GPNs, commissioned, provided and/or signposted by the PCT?

C. What was the outcome of the training-needs analysis of your GPNs?

Have a substantial proportion of GPNs (you set the exact percentage) gained accreditation from the training and development you have made available for them in the past 12 months?
Does an audit show that GPNs are now undertaking the tasks, roles and responsibilities related to the recent training they have received, in a consistently competent manner (see Tool – How to undertake an audit )?
Has the training that followed the needs assessment enabled new ways of working involving GPNs, in line with key PCT or NHS policy documents?

Conclusion

If things are going well, you will have answered 'yes' to nearly every question in each of sections A, B and C. Discuss any questions to which you have answered 'no' with others in your PCT management and training teams or with the general practice employers and see if GPNs' training needs can be more effectively identified and met for those working in your general practices.