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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Lisa Macon Harrison, BSPH, MPH(c), Erin E. Rothney, MPH, Jennifer A. Horney, MA, MPH, and Pia D.M. MacDonald, PhD, MPH. North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 8165, 400 Roberson, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919-843-5559, lisa_harrison@unc.edu

How do we determine priorities for training across the many occupations in public health? Who should receive training in public health preparedness? How do we efficiently and effectively deliver the training? And does the local public health workforce have access and support to pursue training needs?

In response to these questions, the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness has partnered with the North Carolina Division of Public Health and local health departments across the state to offer training opportunities to the local public health workforce. NCCPHP is located in the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health.

This collaboration works to identify and address training needs of local public health workers through assessment implementation, competency prioritization, training plan development, and resource sharing, which can lead to a more prepared, high performing workforce. Lifelong learning offers career-long educational opportunities and a set of strategies to ensure positive recruitment, retention, and performance among public health workers in their everyday jobs and emergency events.

The presentation will describe how training plans were developed for local health departments to address priority training needs in preparedness and core public health competencies, and describe resources necessary for both academic and practice partners to support lifelong learning programs in public health. It will focus on best practices shared by 15 local health departments during a year-long pilot lifelong learning initiative, with special emphasis on what it means to be a more prepared workforce.

Learning Objectives:

This presentation will (
• describe the steps that led to a successful implementation of a public health lifelong learning model in 15 local health departments, (
• review barriers and supports to training plan implementation at the local level, (
• describe how training plan development for individuals, occupational groups, and local public health departments have been implemented in multiple health departments through creating a lifelong learning infrastructure, and (
• discuss resources required to sustain a lifelong learning infrastructure.

Keywords: Partnerships,

Related Web page: www.sph.unc.edu/nccphp/lifelonglearning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered