Children represent the most vulnerable age group in any community. In Sudan they have higher morbidity and mortality rates. Mothers' health seeking behaviors are major determinants for improving child health and knowledge about the factors influencing such practice is very crucial for designing effective intervention strategies. This studyaimsto study factors affecting health seeking behaviors for illness in under five children among the mothers in Khartoum state, Sudan. It was Across-sectional study usingbothquantitative and qualitative methods, Four hundreds and ninety five (495) mothers of those who visited the vaccination units of 33 public health centers were interviewed. Four focus group discussions were held. Chisquare test and regression analysis were used to determine the association between different factors and health seeking behaviors. The results showed that Eighty percent of mothers (80%) seek health care for their ill children. Of them, 70% went immediately to heath facility after disease occurrence. The person who took the decision of going to health facility (p-value=0.000) and work time for the health facility (p-value=0.001) were found to be significantly associated with mothers' seeking behavior using bivariate and multivariate analysis. Since the person who took the decision of going to health facility is the most determinant for mothers' seeking behavior, awareness rising among mothers about the importance of going to health facility immediately after disease occurrence can improve child health outcomes.

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Continuous professional development for all health care providers including nurses is vital to be updated and able to provide quality services. All types of continuing professional development programs are often described as a cycle. This cycle is composed of interrelated components that are the steps of a systematic process, usually starting with identifying learning needs and ending with assessing learning and training evaluation. Training Needs Assessment (TNA) is a method to determine performance gaps, and what training is required to fill in these gaps. Appropriate use of TNA can prevent unnecessary spending on improper, inefficient, and/or ill-targeted training programs, and maintain more focus on the real needs. It also helps save time and resources. The following paper will address the issue of TNA and its accompanying paper will consider the issue of training evaluation in Sudan. The study overall objective was to assess training needs among nurses in Sennar and Singa hospital and to compare the results. Specific objectives were: to identify training needs from viewpoint of nurses, doctors and sisters as well as to develop need-based training module. It was descriptive cross sectional study. A total of 173 nurses, 15 sisters and 13 doctors participated in the need assessment survey. Survey results showed that most of nurses had not attended any in-service training. There were clear gaps in equipment using, task performance, communication and ethical issues. The most important training needs were infection control, communication, ethics, and nursing emergency. Infection control training manual was developed accordingly. There were real and conceptual training needs for nurses identified by nurses, sisters and doctors. All of these training gaps and needs should be considered in the development of future training modules for nurses in Sennar State. In the future, continuous professional development should be promoted through sound evidence-based planning, which means that TNA must be an activity that precedes the preparation and implementation of training programs. Delivering training with the career path so that each nurse has the training opportunity is also strongly recommended as well as fair distribution of training opportunities in the state.

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