Peer-reviewed article
Self-Reported Training Needs and Continuing-Education Preferences of the School Medicine Workforce in Romania: A National Cross-Sectional Survey.
Covaliu BF, Rajka D, Cristescu C, Sandu P, Bordea IR et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study surveyed school medical personnel in Romania to identify their professional training needs and preferences for continuing education. Nearly all respondents expressed interest in further training, with strongest needs identified in mental health, emergency care, nutrition, and parent communication. The workforce preferred blended learning formats and practical simulations, with time and cost as main barriers to participation.
Key points
- 99% of respondents expressed interest in continuing professional development
- Highest training needs: emotional and school-adjustment disorders (59%), emergency first aid (58%), healthy nutrition principles (56%), and parent communication (53%)
- Preferred delivery methods: blended learning (50.2%) and practical simulations (63.4%)
- Main barriers to training: time constraints (39.8%) and cost (37.5%)
- High internal consistency across training-need domains (Cronbach's α = 0.87-0.96)
Limitations
This is a workforce development needs assessment focused on professional training for school medical staff, not an evaluation of interventions or programmes affecting child health outcomes. The study documents training preferences but does not measure or evaluate the impact of any educational intervention on children's well-being.
Abstract
Background/objectives The continuing professional development (CPD) needs of school medical personnel in Romania have not been characterised at a national scale. We quantified the workforce's self-reported training needs to inform a national CPD programme. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional, self-administered online survey (July-September 2025) of school physicians, nurses, dental physicians, and dental nurses, recruited by open invitation through the national school-medicine association's channels. Training needs (59 role-specific items in seven thematic domains) were rated on a 5-point Likert scale; internal consistency, cross-role contrasts, and regression predictors of the overall training-need score were assessed. Results The sample comprised 683 respondents (97.4% female; all eight development regions). Interest in further training was near-universal (99.0%); respondents preferred blended delivery (50.2%) and practical simulations (63.4%), with time (39.8%) and cost (37.5%) the leading barriers. Among generalist physicians and nurses, the highest-rated needs were emotional and school-adjustment disorders (59% high or very high need), major emergency first aid (58%), and principles of healthy nutrition (56%); across all roles, communicating with parents ranked highest (53%). Training needs differed by profession for digital skills, ethics, and social and child rights and between generalist professions for the clinical and health-education domains (p ≤ 0.033; all effect sizes small); internal consistency was high (α = 0.87-0.96). Conclusions This national-scale needs assessment, the largest to date for this workforce, identifies self-reported priorities in mental health, emergencies, nutrition, and communication and a strong preference for blended, applied delivery. These exploratory findings inform the MED4SCHOOL national programme, including free-of-charge delivery, without establishing its causal effect on participation; transferability depends on local scope of practice and financing.