{
  "abstract": "Background/objectives\n\nThe 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\n\nWe 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\n\nThe 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\n\nThis 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.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Community Medicine, \"Iuliu Hațieganu\" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.",
    "The Society of Doctors from Children's and Youth Collectivities, 400427 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.",
    "National Institute of Public Health-Regional Public Health Centre Cluj, 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.",
    "Department of Oral Rehabilitation, Faculty of Dentistry, \"Iuliu Hațieganu\" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Bogdan Florin Covaliu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Daniela Rajka",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8134-4168"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Cosmin Cristescu",
      "orcid": "0009-0004-5489-2283"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Petru Sandu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Ioana Roxana Bordea",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7166-9949"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Alina-Ioana Forray",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6373-2482"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dsyf53365nksn.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3390/healthcare14193245",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13664956",
  "id": "dsyf53365nksn",
  "issns": [
    "2227-9032"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42881684",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2739|Innovations in Medical Education"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7215132108",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13664956?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13664956",
  "pmid": "42881684",
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dsyf53365nksn.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:00Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42881684",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42881684"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2739|Innovations in Medical Education",
      "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Self-Reported Training Needs and Continuing-Education Preferences of the School Medicine Workforce in Romania: A National Cross-Sectional Survey.",
  "title_text": "Self-Reported Training Needs and Continuing-Education Preferences of the School Medicine Workforce in Romania: A National Cross-Sectional Survey.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:00Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dsyf53365nksn",
  "venue": "Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)",
  "versions": []
}