Evaluating the impact of academic-public health partnerships on public health departments and community health agencies

As the burden of disease in the U.S. has shifted, the health care system (including public health) has responded with varying degrees of structural change; however, the manner in which health professions students are trained for practice has shifted only slightly. Recognizing this disjoint, the IOM and others have called for training all health professions students in the principles and practices of health care from a population perspective. The Healthy People 2010 Curriculum Task Force has outlined specific content that all students should be taught, including “community aspects of practice.”

Public health departments (PHDs) are an ideal population/community health training site for health professions students. Previous research by Boex et al. suggests that a large majority of PHDs are already engaged in either formal or informal relationships with health professions schools to provide training to students.

This presentation will review what research methods have been used to describe the academic activities occurring in PHDs, and what has been discovered about those relationships. It will identify what the major gaps in knowledge are about academic-public health partnerships, and how those questions might be addressed methodologically. Finally, implications for practice will be addressed. How can PHDs or other community health agencies weigh the benefits and costs of diverting staff time to educational activities? A template for making better informed decisions will be discussed, to provide PHD and community health leaders with a framework for evaluating the potential positive and negative impact of engaging in training activities on their department's efficiency and effectiveness.