Willingness to respond for radiologic incidents: A hands-on approach

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention published two Radiological Terrorism Toolkits: Public Health Officials (PHTK) and Emergency Services Clinicians (ESCTK). The study consisted of training public health workers and Medical Reserve Corps volunteers to rate 10 distinct virtual survivors each and route them through a Community Reception Center (CRC) pretraining and post-training. The training's effect on the rater's radiation medical knowledge and willingness to respond (WTR) was also measured. Correctly routed survivors increased from a baseline 3.6-5.3, of 10 survivors per rater for the PHTK, and to 5.7 for the ESCTK (p = 0.000). Medical knowledge increased from a baseline of 50 percent to 66.7 percent for the PHTK (nine raters) and to 71.4 percent for the ESCTK (seven raters) (p = 0.000). WTR regardless of severity increased from 34.8 percent to 54.4 percent for the PHTK (p = 0.046). Odds of correctly routing survivors decreased with perception of confidence (0.569, 95% CI 0.375-0.863), while perceptions of preparedness (2.1, 1.4-3.2) and prior training increased the odds (1.8, 1.05-3.16). When taking into account raters unwillingness to respond, the odds of correctly routing survivors decreased with perceptions of confidence in detector use (0.556, 0.365-0.846), with confidence to process persons through a CRC (0.390, 0.215-0.709), and by training with the ESCTK (0.252, 0.12-0.53), while perceptions of preparedness (18.7, 8.4-41.6), and demonstrated medical knowledge (20, 3.26-122) increased ability to correctly route survivors. These findings support the local use of PHTK training to develop surge capacity for a radiological emergency and suggest the interaction between the level of confidence and medical knowledge be studied further.

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Self-Assessment in the Measurement of Public Health Workforce Preparedness for Bioterrorism or other Public Health Disasters

Public Health Reports ◽

10.1177/003335490512000213 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 120 (2) ◽

pp. 186-191 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Dave S. Kerby ◽

Michael W. Brand ◽

David L. Johnson ◽

Farooq S. Ghouri

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Workers ◽

Public Health Workforce ◽

Self Assessment ◽

Local Public Health ◽

Public Health Agencies ◽

The Public ◽

Control And Prevention ◽

Public Health Officials ◽

Public Health Workers

Objective. The purpose of this study was to examine effective ways to evaluate public health workers' competence for preparedness. Methods. The Public Health Ready project, developed by the National Association of County and City Public Health Officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a pilot program designed to prepare local public health agencies to respond to emergency events. Workers at a Public Health Ready site ( N=265) rated their need for training and their competence in meeting generic emergency response goals. Cluster analysis of cases was conducted on the self-assessed need for training. Results. Three groups of workers emerged, differing in their overall ratings of need for training. A given worker tended to report similar needs for training across all training goals. Conclusions. In this study, workers' ratings of need for training may reflect an overall interest in training rather than need for training in a particular area. Caution should be exercised in interpretation when generic goals and self-assessment are used to measure need for training. Future assessments of training needs may be more effective if they use objective measures of specific local plans.

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Municipal public health officials and the Public Health Act

Skandinavisk tidsskrift for yrker og profesjoner i utvikling ◽

10.7577/sjvd.1796 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

Author(s):

Heidi Lyshol

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Workers ◽

Relevant Literature ◽

Vocational Teachers ◽

The Public ◽

New Public Health ◽

New Public ◽

Public Health Officials ◽

Public Health Workers ◽

Public Health Act

Introduction: The Norwegian Public Health Act of 2012 was intended to give the municipalities a bigger stake in the health of the population by emphasizing public health at a municipal level. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the Act on public health officials in the execution of their vocational roles.Research questions: How do public health officials in Norwegian municipalities balance the requirements of the new Public Health Act and what their local leaders, both politicians and bureaucrats, want? How do they use the Act in the performance of their vocational roles? Does this have any relevance for vocational teachers? Method :After a literature search, semi-formal interviews were conducted with 13 municipal public health officials who were also given practical tasks and short questionnaires. The interview transcripts were analysed using Thematic Analysis. This qualitative research technique is defined and described. Discussion and Results: The study shows that the public health workers see the Act as a useful tool and actively use it to leverage the public health field into greater importance. They feel that the Act is empowering, gives them greater pride in their work, and that it helps both them and their superiors to achieve greater understanding of public health workers’ roles in their municipalities. Using the informants’ own words, changes in the municipal public health workers’ roles and vocational self-definitions are discussed in the context of the new Act and selections from the relevant literature. Conclusion: The Public Health Act has changed the roles of municipal public health workers and helped them to further public health by giving them more responsibility and expanded their duty to safeguard health in all policies. The Act is seen as empowering, giving public health professionals pride in their work and greater role understanding, and should be heavily featured in the curriculum of future public health workers.

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Mental Health Help-Seeking and Associated Factors Among Public Health Workers During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China

Frontiers in Public Health ◽

10.3389/fpubh.2021.622677 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Rui She ◽

Xiaohui Wang ◽

Zhoubin Zhang ◽

Jinghua Li ◽

Jingdong Xu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Mental Health ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Associated Factors ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Health Workers ◽

Multiple Stressors ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Control And Prevention ◽

Public Health Workers

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak in China has created multiple stressors that threaten individuals' mental health, especially among public health workers (PHW) who are devoted to COVID-19 control and prevention work. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of mental help-seeking and associated factors among PHW using Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (BMHSU).Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 9,475 PHW in five provinces across China between February 18 and March 1, 2020. The subsample data of those who reported probable mental health problems were analyzed for this report (n = 3,417). Logistic and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations of predisposing, enabling, need, and COVID-19 contextual factors with mental health help-seeking.Results: Only 12.7% of PHW reported professional mental help-seeking during the COVID-19 outbreak. PHW who were older, had more days of overnight work, received psychological training, perceived a higher level of support from the society, had depression and anxiety were more likely to report mental help-seeking (ORm range: 1.02–1.73, all p < 0.05) while those worked in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were less likely to seek help (ORm = 0.57, p < 0.01). The belief that mental health issues were not the priority (64.4%), lack of time (56.4%), and shortage of psychologists (32.7%) were the most frequently endorsed reasons for not seeking help.Conclusions: The application of BMHSU confirmed associations between some factors and PHW's mental health help-seeking. Effective interventions are warranted to promote mental health help-seeking of PHW to ameliorate the negative impact of mental illness and facilitate personal recovery and routine work.

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Policy Critique: The Philippine's Magna Carta of Public Health Workers

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e570102013-002 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Carl Abelardo T. Antonio

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Workers ◽

Magna Carta ◽

Public Health Workers

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Communications and Politics

10.1093/oso/9780190697211.003.0008 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Joshua M. Sharfstein

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Disease Control ◽

Accurate Information ◽

Political Judgment ◽

Political Leaders ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Public Health Crisis ◽

Control And Prevention ◽

Public Health Officials ◽

Centers For Disease Control

An effective communications approach starts with a basic dictum set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Be first, be right, be credible.” Agencies must establish themselves as vital sources of accurate information to maintain the public’s trust. At the same time, public health officials must recognize that communications play out in the context of ideological debates, electoral rivalries, and other political considerations. During a public health crisis, this means that health officials often need to constructively engage political leaders in communications and management. Navigating these waters in the middle of a crisis can be treacherous. Figuring out the best way to engage elected leaders is a core aspect of political judgment.

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Working conditions and health status of 6,317 front line public health workers across five provinces in China during the COVID-19 epidemic: a cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-020-10146-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jinghua Li ◽

Jingdong Xu ◽

Huan Zhou ◽

Hua You ◽

Xiaohui Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Mental Health ◽

Health Status ◽

Health Outcomes ◽

Working Conditions ◽

Health Workers ◽

Front Line ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Self Rated Health ◽

Public Health Workers

ABSTRACT Background Public health workers at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) and primary health care institutes (PHIs) were among the main workers who implemented prevention, control, and containment measures. However, their efforts and health status have not been well documented. We aimed to investigate the working conditions and health status of front line public health workers in China during the COVID-19 epidemic. Methods Between 18 February and 1 March 2020, we conducted an online cross-sectional survey of 2,313 CDC workers and 4,004 PHI workers in five provinces across China experiencing different scales of COVID-19 epidemic. We surveyed all participants about their work conditions, roles, burdens, perceptions, mental health, and self-rated health using a self-constructed questionnaire and standardised measurements (i.e., Patient Health Questionnaire and General Anxiety Disorder scale). To examine the independent associations between working conditions and health outcomes, we used multivariate regression models controlling for potential confounders. Results The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and poor self-rated health was 21.3, 19.0, and 9.8%, respectively, among public health workers (27.1, 20.6, and 15.0% among CDC workers and 17.5, 17.9, and 6.8% among PHI workers). The majority (71.6%) made immense efforts in both field and non-field work. Nearly 20.0% have worked all night for more than 3 days, and 45.3% had worked throughout the Chinese New Year holiday. Three risk factors and two protective factors were found to be independently associated with all three health outcomes in our final multivariate models: working all night for >3 days (multivariate odds ratio [ORm]=1.67~1.75, p<0.001), concerns about infection at work (ORm=1.46~1.89, p<0.001), perceived troubles at work (ORm=1.10~1.28, p<0.001), initiating COVID-19 prevention work after January 23 (ORm=0.78~0.82, p=0.002~0.008), and ability to persist for > 1 month at the current work intensity (ORm=0.44~0.55, p<0.001). Conclusions Chinese public health workers made immense efforts and personal sacrifices to control the COVID-19 epidemic and faced the risk of mental health problems. Efforts are needed to improve the working conditions and health status of public health workers and thus maintain their morale and effectiveness during the fight against COVID-19.

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