The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #37090

Carol D. Young, PhD, Director of Continuing Education, University at Albany School of Public Health, One University Place, Rensselaer, NY 12144-3456, 518-402-0337, cyoung@albany.edu, Dwight Williams, MSW, Director, Northeast Public Health Leadership Institute, University at Albany School of Public Health, One University Place, Rensselaer, NY 12144-3456, Sylvia Pirani, MPH, MS, Office of Local Health Services, New York State Dept of Health, ESP, Corning Tower, Room 821, Albany, NY 12237, and Margaret DiManno, RN, BSN, MS, Assistant Commissioner, Albany County Department of Health, PO Box 678, Albany, NY 12201-0678.

As their team project for the 2001 National Public Health Leadership Institute, the authors took on the modest assignment of strengthening public health infrastructure through workforce development in New York State. Team members each have responsibility for workforce development in different and overlapping spheres: federal, state, regional, local, and academic. This presentation will map out challenges and progress in enumerating the workforce, assessing needs, establishing training priorities, identifying relevant partners, developing learning opportunities, marketing learning opportunities, implementing and evaluating.

Brief descriptions of successful partnerships and innovations for education and training will be offered in order for others to replicate or share. Examples include: leadership institutes, Third Thursday Breakfast Broadcasts, Memorandum of Understanding between University and NYSDOH, Turning Point Initiatives, Community Health Institute, distance learning and more. The on-going challenge of building education and training initiatives into the larger system of public health infrastructure will be discussed.

A model of workforce development is evolving - an overlay of chaos theory onto the structure of the national model of ten essential services, performance measures, and core competencies.

Learning Objectives:

• • Identify the complexities of public health workforce development in a large and diverse state
  • Explore a model of partnerships for achieving public health workforce development
  • Describe innovative initiatives in distance learning and Academic/Practice partnerships
  • Identify successful models to implement or share in other states.
  • Describe why a systems approach is necessary to achieve public health workforce development.

Keywords: Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.