Capitalizing on Social Media for Career Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cam Escoffery ◽  
Melissa Kenzig ◽  
Christel Hyden ◽  
Kristen Hernandez

Social media is powerful and has effective tools for career advancement. Health promotion professionals at all stages of their career can employ social media to develop their profile, network with a range of colleagues, and learn about jobs and other career-enhancing opportunities. This article focuses on several social media resources, describes their key functions for career development, and offers strategies for effective use. Steps in using social media include creating a personal profile, sharing products such as newsletters or publications, and locating volunteer and job opportunities. Learning skills to use social media effectively is important to advancing careers and to the expansion of the public health workforce.

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanti Dahal ◽  
Anjali Sharma ◽  
Sanjay Zodpey

Introduction: Public health programmes work to improve the health and well-being of communities by identifying the risks affecting people at different stages of life and finding best ways to minimize them. This article attempts to map the public health jobs available in India and contribute towards providing new insights in recruitment strategies for public health professionals (PHPs). Methods: A total of 427 public health jobs advertised in recruitment portals, newspapers and websites of organizations during 2012–2015 were analysed for title, qualification, location and job disciplines. Results: Higher qualification in public health and/or social sciences is much preferred followed by MBBS and management. The largest group of vacancies consisted of programme management responsibilities followed by profiles in RMNCH. Delhi, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar had the highest number of jobs. Recommendations: A dedicated public health jobs web portal can be a rich resource for employers for easy access to profiles of PHPs. It will also give due emphasis to public health as a profession. Building a public health cadre in state health services shall be a desirable step to ensure creation of enough job opportunities. Conclusion: Research should be undertaken to understand the changing trends in public health employment. Such studies can be beneficial for public health workforce planning and monitoring.


2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (43) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Bosman ◽  
B Schimmer ◽  
D Coulombier

We analyse activities and outputs of fellows of the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) between 1995 and 2008 and describe the employment history of graduates after the training to demonstrate the contribution of this programme and of national EPIET-associated programmes to the public health workforce in the European Union and Norway. Up to 2008, some 161 fellows entered the training: 121 in EPIET and 40 in EPIET-associated programmes. Of these 149 were awarded a diploma. Fellows engaged in projects in all areas of surveillance, in outbreaks and field investigations and produced 340 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Seventy fellows were sent to 98 individual assignments on 65 international missions. The vast majority of graduates (90%) take up a position and remain employed in applied public health, either on regional, national or international level. Several (27) are working outside the EU, all in public health, including 13 working in Switzerland for international organisations. Only three of the 12 EU Member States that joined the EU since 2004, employ EPIET graduates. A major challenge for training the public health workforce is the retention of professionals in countries with limited job opportunities or wages significantly below the EU average.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meagan Marie Daoust

The healthcare trend of parental refusal or delay of childhood vaccinations will be investigated through a complex Cynefin Framework component in an economic and educational context, allowing patterns to emerge that suggest recommendations of change for the RN role and healthcare system. As a major contributing factor adding complexity to this trend, social media is heavily used for health related knowledge, making it is difficult to determine which information is most trustworthy. Missed opportunities for immunization can result, leading to economic and health consequences for the healthcare system and population. Through analysis of the powerful impact social media has on this evolving trend and public health, an upstream recommendation for RNs to respond with is to utilize reliable social media to the parents’ advantage within practice. The healthcare system should focus on incorporating vaccine-related education into existing programs and classes offered to parents, and implementing new vaccine classes for the public.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272199545
Author(s):  
Areej Khokhar ◽  
Aaron Spaulding ◽  
Zuhair Niazi ◽  
Sikander Ailawadhi ◽  
Rami Manochakian ◽  
...  

Importance: Social media is widely used by various segments of society. Its role as a tool of communication by the Public Health Departments in the U.S. remains unknown. Objective: To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media following of the Public Health Departments of the 50 States of the U.S. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were collected by visiting the Public Health Department web page for each social media platform. State-level demographics were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention was utilized to collect information regarding the Governance of each State’s Public Health Department. Health rankings were collected from “America’s Health Rankings” 2019 Annual report from the United Health Foundation. The U.S. News and World Report Education Rankings were utilized to provide information regarding the public education of each State. Exposure: Data were pulled on 3 separate dates: first on March 5th (baseline and pre-national emergency declaration (NED) for COVID-19), March 18th (week following NED), and March 25th (2 weeks after NED). In addition, a variable identifying the total change across platforms was also created. All data were collected at the State level. Main Outcome: Overall, the social media following of the state Public Health Departments was very low. There was a significant increase in the public interest in following the Public Health Departments during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: With the declaration of National Emergency, there was a 150% increase in overall public following of the State Public Health Departments in the U.S. The increase was most noted in the Midwest and South regions of the U.S. The overall following in the pandemic “hotspots,” such as New York, California, and Florida, was significantly lower. Interesting correlations were noted between various demographic variables, health, and education ranking of the States and the social media following of their Health Departments. Conclusion and Relevance: Social media following of Public Health Departments across all States of the U.S. was very low. Though, the social media following significantly increased during the early course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still remains low. Significant opportunity exists for Public Health Departments to improve social media use to engage the public better.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Stone ◽  
D e b Leyland

Abstract In New Zealand there are 20 district health boards (DHBs) with local elections every 3 years. There is low voter turnout for these, we suspect because the public has low cognizance of the role DHBs have in governing their health and disability system. Good governance ensures everyone whatever ethnicity, gender or sexual proclivity, from birth to old age, able or disabled, mentally well or unwell, drugfree or addicted, has equal rights of dignified access to healthcare. Without public engagement in DHB elections, the community risks having candidates elected that also don't understand their role through a preventative public health framework or human rights lens. The United Community Action Network (UCAN) developed a human rights framework and Health Charter for people driven into poverty by the costs of staying well in NZ. The framework outlines 6 social determinants of health needing protection through policy, to ensure all enjoy their rights to health. UCAN and the Public Health Association of New Zealand (PHA) partnered to raise public and the candidates' awareness during 2019 elections, of these social determinants causing inequity in health outcomes. A series of short explainer-videos were created for sharing through social media during the election build-up period, helping to promote PHA Branches' public Meet the Candidates events. Post-election, a longer film was produced to send to the elected DHB members. Our theory of change centred on spotlighting health inequity for voters, so that they would elect DHB members who had the greatest understanding and commitment to addressing this issue. With shareable videos we aimed to attract audience, raise awareness and debate the policy solutions to health inequity with candidates, enabling more informed choice amongst the voting public. Post-election, we maintain supportive relationships with the elected DHB members that promised their commitment to our Health Charter during their campaigns. Key messages Using videos and social media, local body elections provide an opportunity to promote everyone’s right to affordable healthcare, supporting and informing voter decision-making. UCAN's Health Charter is an advocacy resource for raising awareness of the social determinants of health inequity and poverty for people with mental illness, addiction and disability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Perkiö ◽  
R Harrison ◽  
M Grivna ◽  
D Tao ◽  
C Evashwich

Abstract Education is a key to creating solidary among the professionals who advance public health’s interdisciplinary mission. Our assumption is that if all those who work in public health shared core knowledge and the skills for interdisciplinary interaction, collaboration across disciplines, venues, and countries would be facilitated. Evaluation of education is an essential element of pedagogy to ensure quality and consistency across boundaries, as articulated by the UNESCO education standards. Our study examined the evaluation studies done by programs that educate public health professionals. We searched the peer reviewed literature published in English between 2000-2017 pertaining to the education of the public health workforce at a degree-granting level. The 2442 articles found covered ten health professions disciplines and had lead authors representing all continents. Only 86 articles focused on evaluation. The majority of the papers examined either a single course, a discipline-specific curriculum or a teaching method. No consistent methodologies could be discerned. Methods ranged from sophisticated regression analyses and trends tracked over time to descriptions of focus groups and interviews of small samples. We found that evaluations were primarily discipline-specific, lacked rigorous methodology in many instances, and that relatively few examined competencies or career expectations. The public health workforce enjoys a diversity of disciplines but must be able to come together to share diverse knowledge and skills. Evaluation is critical to achieving a workforce that is well trained in the competencies pertinent to collaboration. This study informs the pedagogical challenges that must be confronted going forward, starting with a commitment to shared core competencies and to consistent and rigorous evaluation of the education related to training public health professionals. Key messages Rigorous evaluation is not sufficiently used to enhance the quality of public health education. More frequent use of rigorous evaluation in public health education would enhance the quality of public health workforce, and enable cross-disciplinary and international collaboration for solidarity.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Landi ◽  
Antonio Costantini ◽  
Marco Fasan ◽  
Michele Bonazzi

PurposeThe purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate why and how public health agencies employed social media during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to foster public engagement and dialogic accounting.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analysed the official Facebook pages of the leading public agencies for health crisis in Italy, United Kingdom and New Zealand and they collected data on the number of posts, popularity, commitment and followers before and during the outbreak. The authors also performed a content analysis to identify the topics covered by the posts.FindingsEmpirical results suggest that social media has been extensively used as a public engagement tool in all three countries under analysis but – because of legitimacy threats and resource scarcity – it has also been used as a dialogic accounting tool only in New Zealand. Findings suggest that fake news developed more extensively in contexts where the public body did not foster dialogic accounting.Practical implicationsPublic agencies may be interested in knowing the pros and cons of using social media as a public engagement and dialogic accounting tool. They may also leverage on dialogic accounting to limit fake news.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to look at the nature and role of social media as an accountability tool during public health crises. In many contexts, COVID-19 forced for the first time public health agencies to heavily engage with the public and to develop new skills, so this study paves the way for numerous future research ideas.


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