Training Needs AnalysisTraining

Needs Analysis
In Depth InterviewIn Depth
Interview

Respondent ID PU-08
Gender Male
Age 62
Qualification PHD
Province Punjab
I: Sir, Please tell me your roles and responsibilities in your department?

R. I am working as a Professor in institute of Diabetic and Health Sciences in Faculty of Allied

Health Sciences at university of Lahore.

I: What else are your Responsibilities?

R: One of the main responsibilities of professor is teaching. I am working in synopsis committee

to check the thesis of the students. In addition to that I am the member of the project
evaluation committee to evaluate the thesis and synopsis of the other departments, duties and
functions related to nutrition. Being senior in the department, although I am not the head of
the department which I requested not to be because I am a retired person belongs to Punjab so
I want to be in the technical board, so I evaluate the proposal of initial research of the under
Grads, M.Phil. aAnd PHD students and tried I try to remove the mistakes.

I: pPlease tell me the no of faculty members you have in your institution?

R: They are something around 36 to 40, but I am not sure.

I: Wwhat is the ratio or percentage of the males and females in it?

R. 9 to 10 are male rest are female.

I: Wwhat is the standard qualification requirement for the faculty?

R: For junior lecturer it’s M.Phil. But for Senior lecturers or Assistant Professors the
requirement is PHD. Our all Male Faculty Members are P.HD’s but for females’s, one female is
P.HD and there is one new hiring (she is PHD) rest are M.phil.

I: Wwhat are the main research areas for nutritional researches going on in your department?

R. There is so many although there is no institutional that focuses on nutritional research, but it
depends on the focus of Faculty focusmember. Mainly we have hospital based studies that is
metabolism control diseases like Diabetes, etc. we are working on the nutritional factors, in
addition to that we are surveying on the different non-communicable Obsession segments and
their factors. Some strong groups are working on the plants and their products, by-products
and their effects on various diseases. We have started on the sweet-disperse dispenses like
Insomnia or acme etc. although it can be due to other social or psychological reasons but
nutrition Is very important contributing factor into it, Like electrolyte balance or particularly
Potassium balance if gets out of controls than it affects the Calcium. We are putting hard efforts

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onto it and try to develop nutritional products which will provide a balanced amount of
potassium.

I: Alright

R: We are also planning to do hospital based study for insomnia and then we will go to the
intervention by introducing different combinations of the Electrolytes and then we will see how
it will affect the major part of the disease. We can’t focus all but we will look into major. After
this hospital based study we will plan dietary and product due electric which will be able to
provide sufficient amount of the electrolytes for the insomnia patients.

I: what are the areas which require research but they are neglected (on your department)?

R: when I study global literature and see the limited resources and limited targets of the
research thean I realize the neglected areas, but one thing I would like to mention is we are
responsible for our problems not for the problems of the USA, UK or other people. We have to
see our nutritional diseases which are associated with our social structures, food habits, food
patterns, distribution systems and our agricultural production systems. All these areas could be
researched at massive level.

I: alright.

R: If you see the intensively cultivated areas of sugar cane growing areas and orchid farms are
gradually lacking micro nutritional due to over production. This causes depletion, now that
depletion shows two results first result is that our production is negatively influenced and
secondly zinc rich food items are affected as they have no zinc, in our opinion these are zinc rich
product but consumer is not getting the zinc. Same is the case with iodine. People are saying
these arethat our lands are good but reality is lands are baldy iodine depleted, so this is the
reason we are forced for food fortification and had to do salt ionization. These are the areas at
large, not only associated with nutrition but also with almost every square of life. Our
agriculture is a nutrition sensitive area.

I: Yes

R: so that is the phenomena which are outside the circle of nutrition.

I: Definitely

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R: If we are working on the preventive side thean its major part should includes health and for
that we have to work on other micronutrient imbalances of our population and then we have to
establish an interventional studies that should be adopted to remove imbalances in the diet.

I: yes of course ok sir now tells me the researches that being carried out in your institution, is
itare these are gender focused or not?

R: the Answer would be yes and no. When we conduct the study then we consider if the study
is gender specific like pregnancy outcome, mother and child specific issues than it’s a gender
specific study, otherwise for the general public problems gender does not matter that are
common. In general when we receive the research data then we segregate the research into
gender to check the prevalence.

I: Sir, please tell me how important nutritional research is for your institutional development
and for the development of the department?

R: Our Institutions are is putting lot of efforts in nutritional research, our institution has hired 9
to 10 PhD’s for nutrition and after I got retired I was called particularly for the nutritional
research. This is how the institutions value nutritional research and institutions have millions in
reserves to fund in ORIC for the research proposals so, if faculty members wants to submit
research proposals then they will fund for that researches. If faculty members purpose research
they will fund it easily short term research of one year etc.

I: How the research findings shared externally?

R: our students after completing their thesis they are not allowed to send their thesis to
externals for evaluation until they have finished their publications. We do not recognize it in the
ordinary generals until the journal is not recognized by the HEC. Our institution has its own
journal basically it’s an international journal of allied health sciences but mostly it have our
nutritional publications and in addition to it we now have an approval for the Alf Nutritional
journals. These are the routine nutritional channels to share the research findings. But I think
these channels are only for scientific community. Nutrition research is not only for the sake of
research, we do it for the sake of society, for health improvement, for disease prevention and
that is the concern of common people. So after joining here I have planned to work on nutrition
bulletin and nutrition newsletter. (Voice Distortion)

I: so sir you were saying…

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R: so I was saying that for basic research it is fine thatas it is limited in scientific society, but if
you are doing applied research and it is not providing any benefit to your society then, I believe,
that the scientists are a burden on the society. I always say that if the experiments that are
done in the laboratory do not provide economic or any other gain to your society then they are
useless. This is why we are trying to give a public message in form of nutritional bulletin and
newsletter in local languages, from this institution to bring awareness. As now there is no need
to depend on a whole team as an individual you can disseminate information I feel like social
media is very effective. Internationally all the political parties use social media to gain voters so,
why can’t we use this to benefit people.

I: okay. Kindly tell me how you will describe the level of research being conducted in your
institute regarding nutrition. Is it below average or above average etc.?

R: I won’t say below average, but there is always route for improvement. One thing is research
quality, but the important thing is the target of the research. Research quality can improve. The
real thing is that you know the ground reality. You put the problems of your society in front. In
your hospitals you can see that for treatment you need reference. Despite having so many
hospitals, doctors are unable to treat everyone. We are unable to catch up with the needs of
healthcare. Why? Why diseases are growing up? Because in our country there is no researched
on these even there is very less. So we need to keep our ground realities in front of us we need
to enlist all the nutritional problem as there is so many we can’t cater all but the major
nutritional problems, nutritional deficiencies should be enlist and targeted and then we try to
research in this field more, meet our basic nutrition needs then it should be shared with the
people, I believe, that we can prevent majority of the diseases as well as our hospitals will not
be as crowded as before if we work more on nutrition.

I: Ssir, kindly tell me, how many much trainings you have attended in this institute in relation to
research methodologies?

R: okay, in this institute when I joined, I realized that our faculty has troubles in writing projects,
so I divided them in groups and organized 4 to 5 workshops for them. It was one topic called
‘project formulation workshop. I was the main speaker. So first we talked about the significance
of research, then research methodology, then project formulation, then the different
components of the project, and what to write when making a research paper. Then we
discussed what are the things must be addressed at the time of writing research proposal. I use
to do these one day workshops and at the end of the day I ask my participants in groups and
individual write a research project as a demo.

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I: are these the only workshops you conducted? As a trainee or trainer have you attended any
other workshop?

R: Wwell as trainers there are many and every week something is happening, but specifically on
research methodology there aren’t a lot of workshops.

I: okay, workshops are focused on nutrition?

R: yes, nutrition focused workshops are held.

I: okay, so what is the percentage of nutrition focused training in those workshops?

R: Ffor students it is must. For faculty, as they also have to take lectures therefore it is optional
for them but majority attends.

I: alright, so you said that weekly you organize a training session in your institution on any
topic? What is the average duration?

R: No, there is no regularity in it, but every week there is an activity. Like next week the
students have arranged an activity. They requested me to help them and we have arranged an
event for that on food fortification.

I: alright.

R: all the students and faculty will attend and food fortification which is very important area
nowadays related to nutritional disease prevention particularly with the reference of Pakistan.
We will tell them everything about the importance of nutrition its dimensions, its effects etc.

I: Wwhat is the duration of these all these workshops or activities?

R: Ffor seminars like 1 hour and like the coming activity, it can be up to 1 day.

I: kindly tell me, are there any external trainers as well in your sessions or the trainers are from
your own institute or you conduct the trainings by yourself?

R: Ddepends, we use all the options as we invite external trainers off and on. Or if our senior
faculty wants to talk on any serious topic so he can also call on a session. It is not the problem
there is a notification only. It is only a matter of a banner which is displayed and people come
to attend. All this arranged very easily. The activity which is next week will have all external
trainers.

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I: Hhow do you select external trainers?>

R: I select them according to the area of specialization and their experience.

I: Wwho decides the content of the seminar?

R: Wwe don’t decide the content, but we tell them the context that our audience, faculty and
student are interested in this topic so they should get the awareness about this topic Because
the speakers have the experience and they know what to discuss in a one hour activity etc.

I: Hhow is the outcome evaluated of all the sessions that are conducted by your institute?

R: it is a very important question which is missing in our system. It is not the part of curriculum
but it is an extracurricular activity and we don’t evaluate it. So generally we are not following it
but the first indicator is attendance that is always good. The second outcome is with that we
use that presence with every teacher, who has 40 students and the information that which
student is taking part in these activities and who is not. 40% marks of these seminars are given
by teachers and majority of the students get good marks.

I: Sir, kindly tell me how many yearly publications focused on nutrition are published by your
institute?

R: I won’t be able to tell the exact amount, but these are more than 40 to 50.

I: are these nutrition focused?

R: Yyes, actually our institute has a very good system. They have connected our yearly
increment with the number of publications we make. At least you should make a healthy
contribution. So, our faculty members try to avail this incentive and it helps in increasing the
number of publications made.

I: Ssir can you kindly tell me the percentage of these publications that gothat are published in
the high impact sector journal.

R: these are less in number, in high impact journal, there is one faculty member who writes
very good high impact factor journal publications and publishes up to 6 high impact factors.
Rest is might in low impact journal or not at all. There are many factors that play a part in
making writers suffer. It is not because of the low quality of research, but some ill practices.

I: can you tell me some of these factors?

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R: Nnumber one monetary gap. You write a low quality paper and they’ll say give us $200 then
we give you high impact sector and if you don’t have it then you suffer. Secondly, some have
not even qualified, but the authors keep on writing that my impact factor has increased to this
amount etc. whileen it does not in reality. So there are many ill practices. Where ever things
transfer in to business then you know better what happens when knowledge sold out?
I: alright, Ssir kindly tell me, in your opinion, for what are the food and nutrition issues that can
be catered through capacity building on research?

R: Student nutrition? What word you have just used I didn’t get it?

I: sir I am asking , what are the major food and nutrition issues that can be catered through
capacity building on research?

R: Ccapacity building is major. Here we have very bad luck and there is high gap, once I have
saw a proposal from your department, one thing is still now we don’t have dietary guidelines
and also there is no food composition tables in Pakistan. What else poverty would be here
more than this because poverty is not only the concern of money. So there is a discussion with
Mr.Akram, but by discussing on an idea now with the grace of GOD, we are seeing it in
practical, so there is improvement. So when we start working on food composition tables, I was
also in that meeting.

I: Alright.

R: We don’t have proper nutritionist who can do their job. There is so many people who
worked in the field but still if he is not a nutritionist then how he will contribute? You can see
our national nutrition survey is given on the contract I mean why it means that we don’t have
any proper institute who is able to work on it? This is the lack of capacity.

I: ok.

R: when you don’t have a proper nutritionist then how will you diagnose the problems? Then
how you can plan and implement? We have a big gap. I am not criticizing them we have good
people so capacity building in nutritional education is very important.

I: Yes.

R: After joining her, I put lots of effort by adding up more courses and by extra activities where
needed so they can learn. Nutritional planning at national level, who knows it! Nutritional
disorders with our food system with our cultural system with our production system even with
our social system all these areas are neglecting. Who is working on it?

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I: Alright.

R: look, working on fix piecemeal is something else by taking up the picture of whole country is
something else. Your department is working very well but planning is our weakest area. Now
it’s is addressing in different ways.

I: ok alright now my next question is in your institution, what is the process for the
identification of research topics?

R: Iit is a learning process.

I: Yes sir.

R: You are asking about students?

I: Yes sir!

R: We ask the first year M.Pphil. students to select an area of research for themselves, the field
of their own choice. Whether we want to go in Genetics, food nutrition etc. they select a field
and collect topics on it. For the teacher it is very easy to assign a topic, but then this prevents
the student from learning. We let him go through the learning process.

I: Alright.

R: We give them a supervisor. Then the student brings topics and as they are inexperienced the
teacher helps them in selecting the topic depending on many factors like aptitude, physical
capability, manpower, and the help that can be taken from the institutes to research out this
topic.

I: fine.

R: Then we see if it is demanded by people or are we handing only the degree. And how much
segment of population is being affected by it. Then our board reviews it and makes a synopsis.
Then it is presented in front off board of studies and project is evaluated. It is a difficult stage.
Many times the synopsis is turned down and students are disheartened, but we tell them to try
again.

I: definitely

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R: Then finally a board sits named IR (institutional review board) and the synopsis that come in
front of this board, half of them are turned down.

I: Alright.

R: There are many reasons i.e. lack of vision, need, research design due to which it is turned
down and after it the project is passed and a HEC board gives them approval and they are
allowed to work on it.

I: alright, in your opinion what is the impact of research methodologies and software on
nutrition planning and implementation?

R: Tthese two are not conflicting. These two are supporting each other. Research methodology
is basic. For any field, you have to go through all research process of research methods to
generate a good research and for that you can use software and these software are
supporting.. I think it is a big blessing in these times. Software, online help, and journals all are
available. We never thought of this in our times and now a day’s students are blessed to have
them.

I: okay. Kindly tell me if you are give training then what are the major facilitators?

R: You are talking about the facilitator, administrative or technical?

I: both

R: Aadministratively we have a very easy system. When we give a proposal we need to get it
approved by higher authorities.

I: ok

R: And the funding we ask for the project is approved with it. Then it goes to our accounts
management, and admin see the physical facilitation. Hall arrangements, banners, play cards
etc. we only tell them the specifics and it is their job to find the hall, set the multimedia,
entertainment, lunch etc.

I: Alright

R: We just give them the list of everything including list of participants if we have an external
guests coming, we tell them and they receive the guests.

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I: Alright.

R: we got everything on time there is no hurdles.

I: okay, what are the major barriers that you face while conducting trainings focused on
nutrition capacity building?

R: when I joined this institute, I tried to study their system and I only remained here because
their system is very good.

I: Alright.

R: They are supportive. If you have an idea, nobody is going to stop you. When I came here I
tello them that there are some equipment lacking and they said give us the specifications. I
recently got to know that those things are here.

I: Ok

R: These are amounted in millions. It took time but there is no question that you have asked for
such expensive things. The power problems are also not present. We have our own break up
system then we have availability of multimedia in every room and labs and if we need
multimedia operator for that so it is also not a problem we can also have operators. There
might be some minor problem but there is no 100% perfection and perfection is not possible in
this world. We don’t have any big issues.

I: so you don’t face any barriers……

R: not normally.

I: Ssir tells me if nutritional focused training is designed and you are supposed to nominate a
person to be trained as a master trainer who goes and attends a training session and then
comes back? From your faculty!

R: tThere are many capable MPhil and PhD faculty members. They are quite capable and good
speakers, I have listened them. If they are given an area then they’ll succeed.

I: okay, sir how you will ensure that the master trainer helps will pass his training and all he
learn to the junior staff and students while for maintaining the standard?

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R: let me tell you one thing I also have given trainings, Itit cannot be trickled down 100% unless
and until it is a provincial level program or the institute takes a special initiative. Yes, they have
all the knowledge, but fully it cannot be passed on, however, I can ensure that they are quite
competent. Whatever material they are given that is effective. They do justice to their topic.
There is so many, I have some faculty females members who are doing PHD from me,
sometimes I have given the commitment but I can’t reached out so I asked them to give lecture
on my behalf in any seminar and training, I just give them material. Then I get the feedback that
they did justice to the topic.

I: Ssir, in your opinion what would be the ideal content for the research conducted in regards of
nutrition?

R: If your audience is already nutrition professionals then there is no need to tell them the
background, but if they are from other fields then you have to tell them the background. It
depends. It’s very good decision to select nutrition relevant people for master trainers. And if
you select professionals then obviously it will save your time and efforts. They have the right of
conceiving the research idea through all the stages like EPD biology, bio statistics, research
method applications etc even assigning of unique id if you are conducting a research and you
even don’t know how to assign unique id to indexes. So you might have collected lots of data
but as you haven’t assign unique ids so your data is lost.

I: ok

R: So all the aspects of research should be addressed. As there is book of SUNAR which I also
have downloaded and I recommend it to my student and I properly ask them as well how much
they have studied.

I: alright.

R: There isare still things that need to be improved in that, as there isare so many areas like
statistical design, sampling cultivation, sampling techniques etc. there are something that has
to be added but it’s a good start.

I: sir what duration would you want for the training that is being conducted (in terms of days
and timings)

R: For research methodology by the professional person two weeks training is enough.

I: Alright

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R: For making it a part of curriculum then it can be spread to a semester. I have seen in other
universities that they keep research methodology, but theyn do not entertain it properly. As a
result, when students come we ask them did you study research methodology and
communication skills they say yes, but in practicality they fail. They should be taught properly.
There should be an intensive course of 15 days where they are asked to make proper projects;
given assignments and worth lectures and they are allowed to interact with TI of modern
research topics.

I: Wwhat should be the timings of the trainings as you have told the days, what should be
timing 9 to 5 or 10 to 5?

R: 9 to 5.

I: okay. What should be the number of trainees?

R: They should be 15 to 16 . Bbut maximum 20.

I: why 20?

R: Wwhen you increase the number of trainees then thise trickledown the effect dilutes. The
trainer cannot pay individual attention to trainees, their questions, facial expressions and
concerns. Because when you have 100 trainees you can’t take them up properly. Here you have
to make them a professional so you need a strong certificate.

I: what should be the number of trainers in each the training?

R: don’t talk about number of trainers, rather the number of areas. Divide all the stages of
research methodology.

I: Alright.

R: And every stage should be assigned a speaker who has experience and know their field.

R: Fine alright.

I: Some scientists are very good, but they have an issue with communicating with an audience.

I: Sir, Do you think a female trainer can cause a different outcome in a training?

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R: (misunderstood the question and talked about a senior trainer) very important. A senior
trainer will overlook everything what are the area to gives more material and what are area to
give audio and video etc., so when he is experienced subject professional Also, they will look at
the quality of material along with the results.
I: (repeats the question)

R: not as such, but yes in females good speakers are able to deliver the points more effectively.
This has been my experience. Once I conducted a workshop. I said this should be done and that
should be done.

I: Alright.

R: At the end of the course they said that you have given us such good ideas; we want to see
from your own trainers which models you have produced. Then I asked them for a week and
presented a project after a week. The point was to show them that we can research in Pakistan
as well. As we have very minor issues and researches could be carry out very easily. You can
conduct a very good research, but you need to know your realities. So it is not bad to have
female trainees.

I: okay, sir kindly tells me that when you nominate trainees or trainers for capacity building, do
you consider gender equality?

R: not gender rather quality.

I: is there any policy which that exists in reference to gender equality?

R: in our faculty, out of forty, ten are male and the rest are female. Also, majority of our
students are females. So we are not having any inequality we don’t say claim this to any one
that you are disadvantaged because you are female or male.

I: Sir, how do you think the gaps in faculty development in nutritional research can be deal
with?

R: Tthe idea which you have given is a very good idea. Look if we talk about 27 to 28 institutions
on nutritional research, formally or informally, and the teachers who taught them were not
even nutritionists themselves and so the knowledge didn’t trickle down. Same happened to the
research methodology. If, even for this, in the start or the middle a crash program is conducted
as you said

R: alright.

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I: then I think it will be very useful activity. I would recommend that it shouldn’t be only
conducted once. If everyone is given this training then you will see a very good result soon.

I: My last question to you if an online sharing portal is made for the staff SUNAR members then
what information and features would you like to see have in it?

R: Vvery useful, actually our people are misers in giving information otherwise I would
recommend that all members give information about the research they conducted in their
institutions (not personal info), in what area they are researching, which research is already
done , title of the research topics, no of students, physical facilities etc. If all this information
comes to you (on portal) then a network will existestablished. Then a student going to Karachi
or Faisalabad or Peshawar will have all the info.

I: Alright.

R: This will contribute to the quality of research. Then it will also facilitate you. If you don’t
have some information then I can ask some other institute (through portal) for it and do a good
quality research. In this way, I can write very good research in this way rather than stick to the
limited quality.

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