What the
learner How the
Needs and Readiness to Learn learner Best
Wants to Learn
learn
when the
learner is
receptive to
learning
Determine characteristics needs of the
population by exploring typical
health problems or issues of interest to
that population.
Learners are the most important source of needs
assessment data about themselves.
Allow patients and/or family members to identify what is
important to them, what perceive their needs to be which
types of social support can provide.
Actively engaging learners in defining their own problems and
needs motivates them to learn because they invested in planning
for a program tailored to the unique circumstances.
Nurses are not sole teachers,
and they must remember to
collaborate with other
members of the healthcare
team for a richer assessment
of learning needs.
Maslow’s hierarchy of
human needs can help the
educator prioritize so that
the learner’s basic needs
are attended before the
higher needs are
addressed.
Prioritizing the identified needs helps the
patient or staff member to set realistic goals and
achievable learning goals.
Educator better focus to identify the needs, but it
may be useless to proceed with interventions if
the proper educational resources are not
available are unrealistic to obtain, or do not
match the learner’s needs.
This assessment will yield
information that reflects
the climate of the
organization.
The educator should be familiar
with standards performance required in
various employee categories, along with
What are the organization’s philosophy, the job description and hospital,
mission, strategic plan and goals? professional, and agency regulations.
Rankin and Stallings (2205) suggest the educator should emphasize the
important points with Respect to Time-Management Issues
Important Points with Respect to
Time-Management Issues
Learner should be asked what they want to
learn first because this step allays their fears
and make it easier for them to
move on to the necessary content.
Methods can be used to assess learners needs to
Yield Reliable Information (Haggard, 1989)
Learning needs are discovered during an impromptu
conversation conversation
Informal Conversations
Most commonly used to solicit the
learner’s point of view
Nurse Educator asks the learner direct and
often predetermined questions to gather
information about learning needs.
Structured Interviews
Structured Interviews
Structured Interviews
Structured Interviews
Structured Interviews
What do you think caused your problem?
How severe is your illness?
What does your illness/health mean to you?
What do you to stay healthy?
Which results do you hope to obtain from treatments?
What are your strengths and limitations as a learner?
How do you learn best?
It is important for facilitators to
The potential learners in most cases
create a safe environment
should be homogenous with so that participants feel free to
similar characteristics such as age, share sensitive information in
gender and experience with the the group setting.
topic under discussion.
The learner’s written responses to questions about learning
needs can be obtained by survey instruments.
It is easy to
administer, provide
more privacy
compared to
interviews and yield
easy-to tabulate
data.
Checklist is the most common
forms of questionnaires. The educator’s role is to encourage learners to
make as honest a self-assessment as possible.
Giving written pretests before teaching is
planned can help identify the knowledge level of potential
learners regarding certain subjects and can assist in identifying
their specific learning needs before the instruction begins.
Documentation by other members of the health
care team, such as physical therapists, social workers,
respiratory therapists and nutritionists, can yield
valuable insights with respect to the needs of the
learner.
Second Determinants: Readiness
to Learn
Adults are eager to
learn when the
subject of teaching
is relevant and
applicable to their
everyday concerns.
Measures of Ability
Complexity of Task -
variations in the complexity
of the task affect the extent
to which the learner can
master the behavioral
changes in the cognitive,
affective, and psychomotor
domains
Health Status
Healthy learners Educators must assess
have energy the readiness to learn
of acutely ill patients
available for by observing their
learning. energy levels, anxiety
and comfort status.
GENDER
Changes are beginning to be seen in the
health-seeking behavior of men and women as
a result of the increased focus of people of all
sexes on healthier lifestyles and the blending
of gender roles in the home and workplace.
Emotional Readiness
Emotional Readiness
Emotional Readiness
It may lead to deny their
illness or disability,
which interferes with
their ability to learn.
Emotional Readiness
Health professionals often act as sources
of social and emotional support to clients.
Emotional Readiness
Emotional Readiness
Emotional Readiness
To develop strategies to minimize the risk,
The learner needs to develop worst-case, best-case and most-
probable-case scenarios.
According to Maslow (1970), physical need such as
food warmth, comfort and safety as well as
psychological needs of feeling accepted and secure
must be met before someone can focus on higher
order learning.
Emotional Readiness
Emotional Readiness
A state of willingness to learn based on such factors as an
individual's past experiences with learning, cultural
background, previous coping mechanisms, locus of control
and level of aspiration.
Experiential Readiness
Early successes are important motivators in learning subsequent skills.
Experiential Readiness
• Previous failures and past successes
influence what goals learners set for
themselves.
• Satisfaction once achieves, elevate the
level of aspiration which in turn,
increases the probability of continued
performance output in undertaking
future endeavors to change behavior.
Experiential Readiness | Cultural Background
They are ready
to learn when
they feel a
need to know
about
something.
Knowledge Readiness
Knowledge Readiness
Knowledge Readiness
Knowledge
Readiness
Individuals with cognitive impairment due to
mental retardation present a special challenge
to the educator and will require simple
explanations and step-by-step instruction with
frequent repetition.
Educator recognizes their special needs and seek ways to help
them accommodate or overcome their problems with encoding words
and comprehending information.
Knowing the teaching
methods and materials with
which a learner is most
comfortable.
