Beliefs of healthcare professionals about training and institutional development actions

Abstract

Objective: measure the beliefs of healthcare teams about training and institutional development actions. Methods: A quantitative, descriptive and correlational research was composed among 937 healthcare professionals who work in public and private institutions in all three healthcare levels. A previously validated instrument used in the data collection process was revalidated in this study. Data were hence submitted to descriptive and inferential statistics, and factor analysis. Results: Three factors emerged: Beliefs about the contributions of training programs both to the individual and the organization; Beliefs about the assessment process for training needs; and Beliefs about training results and processes. The study revealed that professionals showed strong favorable beliefs about the training system. Beliefs are increasingly stronger as the complexity level of the healthcare practice increases. The variables care level, function, time past graduation and work time, work shift, participation in training programs, and length of training time in the past 12 months showed significant differences regarding the beliefs of the professionals about training processes in at least one of the factors. Conclusions: Comprehension of the beliefs of healthcare professionals enables not only the implementation of managerial actions directed to the maintenance of favorable beliefs, but the change of unfavorable ones.