Self-Reported Training Needs and Continuing-Education Preferences of the School Medicine Workforce in Romania: A National Cross-Sectional Survey

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.