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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Judith A. Sugar, PhD, Susan G. Harris, MS, MA, Karen Foster, BS, Julie A. Stage, RDH, BS, and Ana M. Mejia, BS. School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Reno, Mail Stop 274, Reno, NV 89557-0036, 775-784-4041 x232, jsugar@unr.edu

As public health professionals, we should be proud of the longevity revolution occurring in our nation. This phenomenon is a direct result of successful public health interventions implemented over the past century, and creates a demographic imperative for a public health workforce with basic gerontological competencies. How is Public Health responding to this demand? We reviewed MPH curricula on the websites of 37 accredited Schools of Public Health looking for aging content significant enough to be mentioned in course titles, and for aging tracks. We found that most MPH programs offer no aging courses, those that do typically offer only electives, most frequently in epidemiology. Only three schools have an aging track. Clearly, MPH curricula are not yet responding to the impending demographic realities. Experience in other disciplines suggests that offering only stand-alone electives in aging will not be successful in ensuring that public health professionals will possess the necessary knowledge and skills to assess, write policy, and provide assurance for the growing geriatric population. A more appealing alternative is to begin to consciously integrate aging topics into current MPH core curricula. We discuss issues to be considered when infusing aging content into existing courses, including determining key aspects of aging to incorporate, organization of the content, and who should present the material. We also offer specific suggestions for MPH core courses, with the goal of educating our future public health professionals in the basic competencies they will need to serve our aging population.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Recognize the urgent need for gerontological content in Masters of Public Health curricula.
• Assess the current status of gerontological course content in MPH programs.
• Discuss various approaches to infusing gerontological course content into MPH programs.

Keywords: Workforce, MPH Curricula

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation