scholarly journals The Aboriginal Population Health Training Initiative: a NSW Health program established to strengthen the Aboriginal public health workforce

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Li ◽  
Aaron Cashmore ◽  
Dawn Arneman ◽  
Wendy Bryan-Clothier ◽  
Lisa McCallum ◽  
...  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 13S-16S ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McKeever ◽  
Dorothy Evans

In 2013, the Health Resources & Services Administration redesigned the long-standing Public Health Training Center program to meet the training needs of the modern public health workforce and to implement parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which sets the training, recruitment, and retention of public health workers as a priority. Understanding that today’s most significant public health threats are socially constructed, resulting in chronic disease and significant years of life lost, the Health Resources & Services Administration laid the groundwork for the creation of a nationally unified network of training centers—the Public Health Learning Network (PHLN). The PHLN is the nation’s most comprehensive system of public health educators, health experts, thought leaders, and practitioners working together to advance public health training and practice. The system comprises 10 regional public health training centers, 40 local performance sites, and a National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training. The PHLN strengthens the workforce in state, local, and tribal health departments, as well as community health centers and primary care settings, to improve the capacity of a broad range of public health personnel to meet the complex public health challenges of today and tomorrow.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (7) ◽  
pp. 223-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsey Lucyk ◽  
Lindsay McLaren

“Are population and public health truly a unified field, or is population health simply attaching itself to public health as a means of gaining credibility?” This commentary was prompted by the above question, which was asked during K. L.’s PhD candidacy exam. In response, K. L. cited recent developments in the field to support her conviction that population and public health (PPH) existed positively as a unified discipline. However, through conversations that ensued over the subsequent weeks and months, we concluded that this issue goes deeper than the existence of departments and organizations labelled “population and public health,” and may benefit from debate and discussion, particularly for the incoming generation of PPH scholars. In this commentary, we argue that (1) the PPH label at times implies a coherence of ideas, values and priorities that may not be present; (2) it is important and timely to work towards a more unified PPH; and (3) both challenges to and opportunities for a more unified PPH exist, which we illustrate using the broad areas of research funding, the public health workforce and PPH ethics.


Author(s):  
Kahler W. Stone ◽  
Kristina W. Kintziger ◽  
Meredith A. Jagger ◽  
Jennifer A. Horney

While the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline health care workers have been well described, the effects of the COVID-19 response on the U.S. public health workforce, which has been impacted by the prolonged public health response to the pandemic, has not been adequately characterized. A cross-sectional survey of public health professionals was conducted to assess mental and physical health, risk and protective factors for burnout, and short- and long-term career decisions during the pandemic response. The survey was completed online using the Qualtrics survey platform. Descriptive statistics and prevalence ratios (95% confidence intervals) were calculated. Among responses received from 23 August and 11 September 2020, 66.2% of public health workers reported burnout. Those with more work experience (1–4 vs. <1 years: prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.08−3.36; 5–9 vs. <1 years: PR = 1.89, CI = 1.07−3.34) or working in academic settings (vs. practice: PR = 1.31, CI = 1.08–1.58) were most likely to report burnout. As of September 2020, 23.6% fewer respondents planned to remain in the U.S. public health workforce for three or more years compared to their retrospectively reported January 2020 plans. A large-scale public health emergency response places unsustainable burdens on an already underfunded and understaffed public health workforce. Pandemic-related burnout threatens the U.S. public health workforce’s future when many challenges related to the ongoing COVID-19 response remain unaddressed.


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 7 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 44S-50S ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle M. Joyner ◽  
Eman Faris ◽  
Diana Hernández ◽  
Joyce Moon Howard ◽  
Robert E. Fullilove ◽  
...  

A public health workforce that reflects the increasing diversity of the U.S. population is critical for health promotion and to eliminate persistent health disparities. Academic institutions must provide appropriate education and training to increase diversity in public health professions to improve efforts to provide culturally competent care and programs in the most vulnerable communities. Reaching into the existing talent pool of diverse candidates at the undergraduate level is a promising avenue for building a pipeline to advanced training and professional careers in the field of public health. The Summer Public Health Scholars Program (SPHSP) at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) is a 10-week summer internship program with a mission to increase knowledge and interest in public health and biomedical sciences. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Undergraduate Public Health Summer Programs, sponsored by the CDC’s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, SPHSP aims to pipeline underrepresented students into public health graduate programs and careers by providing mentorship, academic enrichment, professional development, and field-based placements. The SPHSP is uniquely positioned to offer scholars a program that exposes them to core public health training components through the joint effort of all four CUIMC schools: public health, dentistry, nursing, and medicine. Here, we describe the program’s academic enrichment components, which provide advanced and multifaceted public health training opportunities. We discuss the impacts of the program on student outcomes and lessons learned in developing and refining the program model.


2021 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-484
Author(s):  
Christine M. Plepys ◽  
Heather Krasna ◽  
Jonathon P. Leider ◽  
Emily M. Burke ◽  
Craig H. Blakely ◽  
...  

Objectives. To improve understanding of the future public health workforce by analyzing first-destination employment outcomes of public health graduates. Methods. We assessed graduate outcomes for those graduating in 2015–2018 using descriptive statistics and the Pearson χ2 test. Results. In our analysis of data on 53 463 graduates, we found that 73% were employed; 15% enrolled in further education; 5% entered a fellowship, internship, residency, volunteer, or service program; and 6% were not employed. Employed graduates went to work in health care (27%), corporations (24%), academia (19%), government (17%), nonprofit (12%), and other sectors (1%). In 2018, 9% of bachelor’s, 4% of master’s, and 2% of doctoral graduates were not employed but seeking employment. Conclusions. Today’s public health graduates are successful in finding employment in various sectors. This new workforce may expand public health’s reach and lead to healthier communities overall. Public Health Implications. With predicted shortages in the governmental public health workforce and expanding hiring because of COVID-19, policymakers need to work to ensure the supply of public health graduates meets the demands of the workforce.


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