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The Most Important Skills Required by Local Public Health Departments for Responding to Community Needs and Improving Health Outcomes
- Source :
- Journal of Community Health
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Springer US, 2021.
-
Abstract
- In 2017, Public Health 3.0 was introduced, providing recommendations that expand traditional public department functions and programs. Operationalizing the framework requires that local health departments invest in the requisite professional skills to respond to their community's needs. The purpose of this paper is to determine the professional skills that are most important for local health departments to respond to large public health issues and challenges that are having a major impact on their communities. The study used a cross-sectional assessment of the education and training needs of local public health departments in Nebraska following the principles of practice-based systems research. The assessment was designed to assess the training and education needs of local health department staff members. The questions measured the perceived importance of and respondent's capacity across 57 core competencies for public health professionals modified from the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice. A total of 104 staff members from seven local health departments were requested to complete the assessment and 100% of the individuals responded to and completed the assessment. Twenty-eight skills were identified as the most important skills needed for local health departments. The skills were themed and categorized into four domains. (1) Data, Evaluation, and Quality Improvement, (2) Community Engagement and Facilitation, (3) Systems Thinking and Leadership, and (4) Policy and Advocacy. The results from this analysis provide direction to strengthen and transform the public health system into one that is connected, responsive, and nimble. Additionally, it also highlighted a glaring omission that Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion should be included as the fifth domain.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Health (social science)
Health Personnel
education
Outcome Assessment, Health Care
medicine
Humans
Systems thinking
Quality improvement
Medical education
Original Paper
Operationalization
Community engagement
Competency assessment
Public health
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Core competency
Capacity development
Local public health system
humanities
Cross-Sectional Studies
Respondent
Public Health Practice
Public Health
Psychology
Inclusion (education)
Health department
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 15733610 and 00945145
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Community Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d973ddd2c3490bb8c06a2dce23d018b2