Globally, local health departments need trained, future-oriented staff. Existing staff need to have an understanding of public health and to be updated for their job. Future staff may be in training programs that are not oriented to the real world of Public Health. The local health department itself can help in both situations by being a site for training.
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) has experience with both groups. It has in-house training programs for its public health staff, both to help them understand the vision of public health and the importance of their field, and to update them for their job. In addition, in 2000, there were 288 students from 41 post secondary school institutions who had experience in the Public Health division. For the past two years there has been a Multidisciplinary Staff Education Council for public health that has developed a framework and a coordinated, integrated public health education and training plan.
Multiple challenges and issues must be considered in the provision of education and training within a local health department. This paper describes these challenges and issues and identifies some ways to approach them. In addition a model for training is described which is based on the experience in the Public Health Division of the Los Angeles County DHS.
The model and approaches described should be of assistance to other health departments who are concerned with contributing to public health workforce development.
Learning Objectives: 1. List three challenges health departments face in doing training on site. 2. Describe approaches to each listed challenge 3. Construct a training model for a local health department doing training on site
Keywords: Public Health Education, Training
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.