Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C: Organizational Input
Appendix C: Organizational Input
Pages 199-221
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From page 199... ...
Appendix C Organizational Input 199
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From page 200... ...
While graduates of schools of public health practice in every imaginable industry and setting in a field that becomes increasingly more complex and inter- and multi-disciplinary every year, there remain five core areas of knowledge that schools of public health must make available to masters and doctoral students: biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, health services administration, and social and behavioral sciences. Individual schools may make other coursework mandatory, at their discretion.
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From page 201... ...
The original framework that is currently under discussion, while not discarding the five core knowledge areas mentioned above, presents a crosscutting schema for graduate public health education. This process is still underway and is anticipated to result in a consensus around the core areas of competence during the spring of 2002.
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From page 202... ...
has low status and no clear definition Environmental opportunities · Increased prominence of public health following the World Trade Center disaster and the use of anthrax as a bioterrorist weapon · Recognition of the need to support public health infrastructure · Growing government and foundation support for health-related research · Federal commitment to reducing health disparities · Increasing public emphasis on disease prevention and health promotion funding · Application of public health methods to key issues in medical care · Development of coalitions to advocate for major increases in · Training and credentialing of the public health workforce · Application of new technologies, including the World Wide Web, which has broadened access to graduate public health education and increased research possibilities
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From page 203... ...
As far as graduate public health education is concerned, a number of changes are influencing the way that the 31 accredited schools of public health educate graduates: (a) Diversity of Practice Setting Each year brings new opportunities for public health practice and concomitant new titles and scopes of work for graduates of schools of public health.
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From page 204... ...
Further, public health practice has expanded to include virtually every sector of society, from agriculture to zoology, and it pervades people's lives in ways that few individuals thoroughly appreciate. Public health work is ubiquitous, and one may encounter large numbers of professionals with graduate public health training in community-based organizations, not-for-profit agencies, business, the insurance industry, foundations, high-tech operations, and every imaginable venue for providing conventional and alternative prevention services.
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From page 205... ...
Interest in the social and behavioral sciences and epidemiology, in particular, is expanding as a result of research advances and improvements in methodologies, including the genomic, molecular, and biological sciences. This acceleration in basic scientific discoveries also speeds up the need for their continuous translation through public health disciplines into safe, practical, accessible benefits for all.
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From page 206... ...
The need to effectively measure academic public health performance is exigent and a long-standing vacuum in whole-person, population based funding in research that prevents disease and disability has distressed the health of academia. Performance measurement systems, which measure public health practice as defined by the Essential Public Health Services, aim to provide information to advocate for public health at state and local levels, shape policy decisions, and target resources to ultimately improve the health of the public.
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From page 207... ...
A stable and effective public health infrastructure, including sufficient numbers of appropriately trained health professionals distributed to provide appropriate public health services to all populations, is essential to ensure development of sound public health policy and excellence in public health practice. A public health education experience can provide persons who propose to engage in the practice of public health with valuable skills and perspectives critical to a full appreciation of their discipline.
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From page 208... ...
Within the construct of levels or stages of public health knowledge and competencies, there is a need to establish realistic competency expectations for each level/stage of "public health education." Such a model encompasses the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for health professionals without a formal public health degree working in a public health practice setting at one end of the continuum (i.e., professional education in a related field such as medicine, nursing, or social work) to those with advanced degrees in public health working in either practice or academic settings (i.e., doctoral education in public health)
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From page 209... ...
The key challenge facing public health education today is reconciliation of the academic environment in which most public health education takes place with the practice environment for which students are destined. Academic public health institutions and their faculty have a strong and entirely appropriate interest in research; the financial environment of American academic institutions reinforces that focus.
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From page 210... ...
At the same time, the need for public health activities to provide bridging and wrap-around services, to build community coalitions, to maintain and enhance surveillance and assessment activities, and to bring forward creative policy solutions to the health needs of our populations continues. The academic public health profession and public health practice must assure their states and communities understand the critical need and value of such activities.
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From page 211... ...
Public health education (IOM) context: "We're trying to befairly inclusive when talking about public health education but we will defocusing on CEPH accredited schools of public health and accredited M.P.H.
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From page 212... ...
In the CDC/ATSDR Strategic Plan for Public Health Workforce Development (~1999) , developed in collaboration with a broad range of academic and practice community partners, task force members articulated three curriculum levels required for the public health workforce: basic, cross-cutting, and discipline-specific (technical/categorical)
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From page 213... ...
Challenges · Accredited programs are not always accessible; · Expanding the pipeline into public health, enhancing learning opportunities and workforce diversity; · Lack of partnership with the practice community in training/education development, implementation and evaluation; · Growth of non-CEPH accredited programs; graduates enter workforce with various levels of preparation in basic public health science; · Balancing research and education and service mission (rewarding faculty for practice-focused activities) ; · No consistent approach to enumeration of the public health workforce; forecasting personnel needs or related training requirements is limited;
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From page 214... ...
Entry to practice for specific clinical areas such as medicine, nursing, dentistry, etc., is licensed. There is no systematic approach to assure ongoing competency in public health practice through certification, credentialing, or a systematic approach to life long learning opportunities for front line public health professionals.
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From page 215... ...
. A; · changing demographics focus on geriatrics and enriched understanding of cultural dimension of health; global health issues; · increased understanding of environmental influences on health; · occupational and environmental health; · informatics and information technology adaptation and use of a broad range of technology in public health practice; · emerging infections/drug resistance; · availability of incentives to pursue life long learning; · learning technologies will change the way professional education is obtained (advance distance learning)
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2. What is the minimum knowledge you or your organization's members expect from someone with a public health education?
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Several strategies should be considered, including: faculty; · including local and state public health practitioners as part of · conducting research regarding where current public health professionals have been trained, where they obtain on-going professional training, where they would like to get training, barriers to training and education, etc.; · granting access to libraries and other resources of the schools for public health practitioners in the area;
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From page 218... ...
218 WHO WILL KEEP THE PUBLIC HEALTHY? · pursuing "practical" research in state and local public health settings; · increasing responsibility/focus on continuing education for public health professionals; · engaging public health faculty in undergraduate training of professions which work with or are hired by public health agencies, such as nursing, environmental health; · developing stronger linkages during training between academic work and field practice.
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From page 219... ...
In addition, we value individuals who have practical experience in public health practice and have developed expertise as effective communicators, conveners, and consensus builders. The ideal for us is an individual educated in public health with practical experience and training received in a public health practice setting.
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One of the greatest challenges facing public health practice education are market forces. Too few graduates of schools of public health end up working in public health practice settings, especially the more traditional state and local health agency settings.
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To more completely understand the current and future education and training needs of the public health workforce, a comprehensive assessment using the core competencies for public health professionals could be conducted that identifies gaps and priority training needs. Other new skill/knowledge needs are likely to be in the areas of genomics, how to identify and use the growing body of scientific evidence that can guide the practice of public health, and strategies for integrating the aging population into public health programs.
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