Training needs of nurses in public hospitals in Australia: Review of current practices and future research agenda

This paper seeks to provide an overview of the concept of training needs analysis (TNA), current practice, models and the impact that training needs analysis currently has on nurses in public hospitals in Australia. Thus, the paper should aid future research in the area of TNA of nurses through helping researchers to clarify the conceptual boundaries of training needs of nurses; providing a theoretical framework that could help researchers in framing their research efforts in the area; and establishing a research agenda and identifying the impact this research will potentially have on Human Resource managers in hospitals across Australia.

This paper examines the TNA process by examining literature regarding the importance and benefits of TNA, issues relating to TNA and current practice and models. This paper then looks at how TNA applies to, and is currently practised within, the healthcare industry, specifically amongst a group of nurses. This paper also addresses how TNA tools relate to healthcare workers, particularly nurses, within Australia and how it may be able to improve the current TNA process for nurses in Australia.

The specific contribution of the current paper is in developing a logical model of TNA for nurses employed in healthcare organizations in Australia. In so doing insights are drawn from a number of discreet literature bases.

Research in this area has been carried out primarily in the UK, in the USA, and in other countries. Unfortunately, TNA for nurses in Australia is very much an under‐researched topic. Equally, there is scant research available into the importance and benefits of conducting appropriate TNA for nurses in Australia. The research that has been conducted involving training needs of nurses in Australia has not been focused on a TNA using a psychometrically valid tool, nor has the research considered the factors that may influence the training needs of particular nurses or organizations.