Assessing management training needs: a study in the Punjab health services,Pakistan

Pakistan's public sector is organized in a federal system with many management and planning functions devolved to the 4 provincial governments. Provincial health secretariats lead on most policy and planning decisions for health services. The provinces employ health personnel, although the national Public Service Commission controls some key aspects of human resources management. Reporting the findings of a training needs assessment (TNA) for health personnel in the provincial health services of Punjab, the authors show how TNA can be used systematically to improve the quality of health professional training. They also discuss the extent to which better training could contribute to improved health management capacity in Pakistan, and describe the context and problems of Pakistan's health services, focusing upon management capacity, and the methods and results of a training needs assessment conducted to address the problems. A final section covers the usefulness of the TNA method in Pakistan and its applicability to other countries. Moreover, the implications of decentralization and the problems of preparing training plans in the absence of decentralized structures are discussed.