[Training needs of health personnel in El Salvador and perceived barriers: keys to strengthening regional virtual trainingNecessidades de formação e barreiras percebidas pelo pessoal de saúde em El Salvador: chaves para fortalecer a capacitação virtual regional].

Objective: To describe training needs and analyze perceived barriers to accessing virtual training among health professionals with technical and managerial roles in the National Integrated Health System of El Salvador. Method: This research analyzes a survey on training needs conducted by the El Salvador node of the Virtual Campus of Public Health of the Pan American Health Organization. The entire population (100%) registered as managers and technical personnel were included. Professionals with more than 20% missing data for variables of interest were excluded. The analysis made use of proportions, ratios, and an ordinal logistic regression model, along with artificial intelligence and QDA Miner Lite® for content analysis of open-ended questions. Results: A total of 519 records were analyzed: 68% (95% CI: 63.7-71.9%) were women and 37.8% (95% CI: 33.6-42.1) were between 30 to 39 years of age; 79.0% (95% CI: 73.4-83.5%) of managers identified topics of institutional interest and 96.1% (95% CI: 92.5-98.1%) of technical personnel reported taking courses that include topics related to their profession. The barriers associated with completing a course were time constraints (proportional odds ration [OR]: (13.11; 95% CI: 7.3-24.4) and being female (OR: 95% CI: 1.1-2.5). Conclusion: Training needs for managers were most frequently reported in the areas of management and administration; for technical personnel, training needs were mainly in the area of specialized care. Being female and time constraints were factors associated with completing online training programs.