The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #69254

Mary Davis, DrPH, MSPH¹, Pia MacDonald, PhD, MPH¹, M Lisa Macon, BSPH², and H. Pennington Whiteside, MSPH². (1) NC Institute for Public Health, UNC School of Public Health, CB 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165, 919-843-5558, mary_davis@unc.edu, (2) North Carolina Institute for Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

The North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness (NCCPHP), at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, has developed and implemented an online assessment for the public health workforce in North Carolina. We have conducted the assessment with the state’s newly developed Public Health Regional Surveillance Teams (PHRST)(n=36) as well as the county-level staff involved with outbreak investigation (n=750). The assessment instrument is designed to identify public health worker priority training needs in the core public health competencies established by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Practice, as well as the core emergency preparedness and response competencies. NCCPHP administered the assessment through a contract with the NC Department of Health and Human Services. This presentation will 1) briefly review instrument design and pilot test results, 2) provide results from the survey for preparedness competencies and priority training needs of the PHRSTs and the county-level workers responsible for outbreak investigation, 3) describe implications for the design of training opportunities for these target groups, and 4) discuss issues and challenges of mounting an extensive survey over the Internet in a state with a decentralized local health department system.

Learning Objectives:

Following completion of the session, participants will be able to:
• describe the development and implementation of a public health workforce training needs assessment survey for the state of North Carolina; 2.discuss findings from the public health workforce training needs assessment survey related to workers responsible for outbreak investigation; and
• discuss challenges of implementing a statewide internet survey.

Keywords: Assessments, 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.