Planning for the future of public health: Assessment of Michigan's public health workforce

Several recent reports highlight the crisis of the aging public health workforce and the need this presents to train future public health workers to sustain and improve public health infrastructure. The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) convened a statewide workgroup comprised of local and state health department representatives, along with academic and research partners, to identify training and infrastructure needs of the public health workforce in Michigan.

The Office of Public Health Practice at the University of Michigan School of Public Health was charged with developing and implementing an assessment to capture these workforce issues. The assessment focused on ascertaining the training needs of the current workforce, as well as determining future retirement plans.

The assessment was conducted as an online survey in 2007 and queried all public health staff at MDCH. We anticipate expanding the survey to include all 45 local health departments in Michigan. Preliminary results from the statewide assessment are based on a 95% response rate.

This presentation will discuss the findings of the assessment including: estimated retirement plans of current MDCH employees and the challenges this presents to maintaining a highly competent staff within the state health department; analysis of self-rated competencies in emergency preparedness and core public health skills; and preferences in training method, mode, and topics. These results will be used by the Office of Public Health Practice and others to develop appropriate training courses to meet the needs of the workforce and will be used by MDCH to develop appropriate succession plans.