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

Abstract #70305

David Potenziani, PhD¹, Christopher Ogden¹, H. Pennington Whiteside, MSPH², Mary Davis, DrPH, MSPH³, M Lisa Macon, BSPH², and Pia MacDonald, PhD, MPH³. (1) Instructional and Information Systems, UNC-CH School of Public Health, Campus Box 7400, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919-966-9761, david_potenziani@unc.edu, (2) North Carolina Institute for Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, (3) NC Institute for Public Health, UNC School of Public Health, CB 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165

The proposed presentation will describe North Carolina’s approach to improve the training and preparedness of the public health workforce in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 2001. The state is using Internet technologies to create a system of public health workforce skills’ improvement. The system includes a cycle of an initial needs’ assessment, a competency matcher to identify training needs, a catalog of training resources, links to external enrollment systems for online training courses and materials, and an evaluation to document the specific skills learned or enhanced. All the applications supporting these steps use the Internet and are accessible by individual practitioners. Moreover, the system allows the aggregation and reporting of data on workforce development for local, county, and state public health officials. Public health leaders are able to assess the current state of training, measure the effectiveness of policies and approaches, and deploy training resources more effectively. The presentation will review the choice of technologies, development and deployment of the system in the spring of 2003, and provide lessons learned. If an online connection is available, we will demonstrate how a public health practitioner uses the system and show aggregate reports available to policy makers.

Learning Objectives:

Following completion of the session, participants will be able to:
• describe the technology choices made and understand the reasons for those approaches;
• describe the method of development and deployment across a state;
• understand the pitfalls and benefits of the operational system.

Keywords: Information Technology, Training

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.

Handout (.ppt format, 1923.0 kb)