Gap Analysis: Before You Build the Class

Welcome back to Elevate NPD Micro-Learning. I'm Dr. Kai.

In Modules 01 and 02, we looked at onboarding and orientation, and how to know when an orientee was ready to complete orientation. Today we step back to the question that should come before any education is built. And that is, what is the gap?

A professional practice gap is the difference between what's happening in practice right now and what should be happening. It sounds simple, right? But when we skip that step, we end up building classes that don't change anything.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to separate the current state from the desired state, and decide whether the gap comes from knowledge, skill, practice, or something education can't fix.

Every gap has two sides. The current state is what the data shows is happening now. The desired state is what should be happening, based on evidence, policy, or a standard. The gap is the distance between them.

Here's the part people miss. Both sides need to be specific enough to measure. Nurses need more education isn't a gap. It's a solution someone has already picked.

Tap each card to see the two sides.

Let's meet Morgan. Morgan manages a busy medical-surgical unit, and falls went up last quarter. Morgan sends you a message. We need a fall prevention class for everyone, as soon as possible.

Before you book a room, you take a closer look. You find the nurses scored well on last month's fall prevention quiz. However, chart audits show that fall risk reassessment after a new sedating medication is documented for only about half of the patients who need it. And the charge nurse mentions that several bed alarms have been broken for weeks.

So, will a class fix this? Hold that thought.

When you find a gap, ask yourself what's underneath it. There are three kinds of educational need. A knowledge need means the nurse doesn't know. A skill need means the nurse knows what to do, but doesn't know how to do it. A practice need means the nurse knows how, but isn't doing it consistently in real practice.

And there's a fourth possibility. Sometimes the cause isn't education at all. It's equipment, staffing, workflow, or a process that makes the right thing hard to do. Education can't fix a broken bed alarm.

So what's going on with Morgan's unit? Knowledge looks fine. The reassessment problem is a practice gap. And the broken alarms are a system issue that belongs with the manager, not in a class. Tap each one to see the clues and what helps.

Now it's your turn. Think of an education request you've gotten lately. Write down the current state and the desired state as specifically as you can. Then decide what's really underneath the gap.

You'll build a gap statement you can download, and there's a one-page worksheet to use the next time someone asks you for a class.

Next week, in Module 04, we'll look at the data collection methods that help you find and prove a gap. I'm Dr. Kai. Let's continue to elevate this work together.