Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #107101

Elizabeth A. Giese, RN, BSN, MSPH, Wisconsin Division of Public Health, 610 Gibson Street, Suite 3, Eau Claire, WI 54701, 715-836-3830, gieseea@dhfs.state.wi.us and Gretchen Sampson, RN BSN MPH, Polk County Health Department, 100 Polk County Plaza, Ste. 180, Balsam Lake, WI 54810.

The Western Wisconsin Public Health Education Consortium (WWPHEC), a 501 (c)(3) organization, was formed in 1985 by local health departments in western Wisconsin to plan and implement training for nurses working in local health departments. The membership of WWPHEC consists of eighteen local health departments and two tribal health departments with support from the state public health nurse consultant. In the past twenty years more than sixty trainings have been held that are conveniently located, low cost, and address identified needs. In order to continue to develop a strong and relevant public health nursing workforce, the WWPHEC has incorporated into program planning the Public Health Core Competency framework adopted by the Quad Council. Every two years, staff level public health nurses at each of the health departments and tribes are asked to partake in a two-part process to plan for upcoming training events. Staff are guided by managers to identify their three priority training needs using their knowledge of the eight domains of the Public Health Competencies. These priorities are analyzed and grouped by the WWPHEC Board. Local staff are then asked to indicate the competency domains they need addressed for each of the top five training priorities identified for the region. All training planned is based on this information. The Public Health Competencies have also been incorporated in to the planning and evaluation of each training provided and all training conducted will eventually be entered using the statewide TRAIN system that tracks competency development.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session the learner will be able to

• Recognize the value of developing a state and local partnership for advancing public health nursing competency.
• Describe a public health nursing training needs assessment process that utilizes the public health competency domains as a framework.
• Identify a process that can be used to plan and evaluate public health nursing training using the public health competency domains.

Keywords: Competency,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.