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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Joyce R. Gaufin, BS, Division of Health Care Financing, Utah Department of Health, P.O. Box 143105, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-3105, 801-538-6422, jgaufin@doh.state.ut.us, Sharon Clark, MPH, Community and Family Health Services, Data Resources Program, Utah Department of Health, P.O. Box 142001, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-2001, A. Richard Melton, DrPH, Deputy Director, Utah Department of Health, 288 North 1460 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84114, and Dagan A Wright, MSPH, Department of Health Promotion and Education and Intermountain, University of Utah and Injury Control Research Center, 1070 East 300 South # 209, Salt Lake City, UT 84102.
State and local health departments are facing great challenges in providing appropriate training for the public health workforce. One challenges is financial-budgets are being cut and training budgets are often the first to be eliminated. Other challenges may be related to the lack of internal training experts-people who can conduct an assessment of specific training needs, develop a training plan, prepare curricula and select an appropriate delivery mechanism. This presentation will describe the experience of a state health department that utilized internal staff expertise to develop a "public health 101" course for their employees. The model describes the initial training needs assessment, development of leadership and employee buy-in, a brief overview of the development process, field testing and evaluation, and concludes with an agency-wide deployment plan. This model relies heavily on the use of internal experts-people with skills in adult learning, as well as content experts such as epidemiologists, statisticians, health educators, etc. Participants in the training program study independently utilizing CD's and web-based activities, have access to an "on-line" professor", and attend two facilitated workshops. Results from the formal evaluation have demonstrated the effectiveness of the training, and the cost was covered as part of the routine operations of the department. This model for development and implementation of a public health training program can be transferred to other state and local health departments, and can also be replicated for other public health workforce training topics included in the core competencies for the public health workforce.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Professional Training, Training
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Utah Department of Health
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.