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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Janet Place, MPH, NC institute for Public Health, UNC School of Public Health, CB# 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165, 919-966-7921, jplace@email.unc.edu, Mary Davis, Dr PH, MSPH, North Carolina Institute for Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165, and Cheryl Lesneski, DrPH, Public Health Leadership Program, UNC School of Public Health, CB# 7469, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165.

In 2004, the Southeast Public Health Training Center (SPHTC) of the NC Institute for Public Health began partnering with five health departments in the northern panhandle of West Virginia to bring targeted training to the area. In 2005, the health department administrators approached the SPHTC about providing leadership training for all 60 employees of their five health departments--from office managers to sanitarians to nursing directors to administrators. SPHTC staff conducted an onsite needs assessment to understand who the audience was, what kind of training and education they had and the their level of understanding of why they were being sent for this training. This assessment was critical for developing the training program. The subsequent 30 hours of training focused on leadership styles, team building, negotiation and conflict resolution and ended with a capstone session. While the administrators felt that the training was successful in strengthening each agency as well increasing regional cooperation, SPHTC conducted an evaluation to look at the impact one year after the training and to define the success. Did the training really strengthen the region? Was it the content of the training that made it work or was it the activity of bringing everyone together to work collaboratively in a practice-based training environment? In addition, was the training really appropriate for all staff members, and what should be the next step in building sustainable collaboration among the health departments?

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the characterists of the workforce of rural West Virginia health departments.
• Describe the successful components of training all employees of multiple health departments in order to strengthen regional collaboration.
• Describe the leadership within the health departments that made this effort possible.
• Describe training needs for sustaining regional collaboration.

Keywords: Workforce, Rural Health

Related Web page: www.sphtc.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered