Oral

There is a critical shortage of public health professionals in the United States, especially public health nurses. This presentation will include a description of the efforts in one state, Minnesota, to address this problem through collaboration among state and local health departments and schools of nursing. We will next present an approach taken by New York State, involving the creation of a Task Force comprising a unique multidisciplinary team of state agencies, local health departments, academic institutions, health professional and advocacy organizations, the CDC, and others. The activities, outcomes, challenges, and recommendations of key charter workgroups of the Task Force will be discussed. The next presentation will address ways to increase the diversity of our public health workforce, describing the benefits of diversity; current and future trends in health professions diversity in California; issues, obstacles, and opportunities in increasing health professions diversity; current exemplary practices; and a review of the literature. A model to use existing data to better understand the current nursing shortage in the United States will be described. Finally, a strategy to better train public health professionals on HIV/AIDS and establish long term training relationships with primary care providers will be discussed.

Session Objectives: At the end of this presentation, participants will be better able to: • Discuss examples of education and practice collaborations resulting in public health experiences for baccalaureate nursing students that promote competencies and future employment in the field • Identify key strategies and activities that can be implemented to address public health workforce challenges • Describe the critical steps in developing a comprehensive, evidence-based strategy for increasing diversity in public health • List three methods for engaging primary care providers in clinical education

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing