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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Anjum Hajat, MPH, Research and Evaluation, National Association of County and City Health Officials, 1100 17th Street, NW, Second Floor, Washington, DC 20036, 202-783-5550, ahajat@naccho.org, Karen Stewart, MPH, CHES, Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 91-55, Rockville, MD 20857, and Kathy L. Hayes, DMD, MPH, Office of Rural Health Policy, Health Resources and Services Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rm 9-A 55, Rockville, MD 20857.
Introduction: The shortage of doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals in rural communities has been well documented for many years. Nevertheless, few studies have looked specifically at the rural public health workforce. This presentation intends to provide a descriptive picture of the rural local public health agency (LPHA) workforce.
Methods: A mail-in survey was conducted from November 1999 to April 2000. The survey was sent to a stratified random sample of 1100 LPHAs across the nation. Beyond workforce, the survey focused on infrastructure issues, including: services and programs, partnerships, community health assessments, and overall characteristics. In order to define LPHAs as rural or urban, the authors used Rural Urban Commuting Area codes. The Standard Occupational Classification system was used to enumerate the workforce.
Results: Regardless of rural or urban status, public health nurses were ranked as the number one need for about ¼ of all responding LPHAs. Environmental scientists followed. Eighty-one percent (81%) of metropolitan LPHAs indicated they had a budget item for continuing education, compared with 76% in large towns and 69% in small/rural towns.
Conclusions: Recruitment of a skilled workforce is critical for LPHAs to lead a prevention-focused agenda that assures population health activities. The needs of rural LPHAs are great, but recent developments may enable rural LPHAs to expand their workforce. Grants for bioterrorism preparedness will be used to build the local public health infrastructure, while nursing education loan repayment programs may assist rural LPHAs in workforce development.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Workforce, Rural Communities
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.