Oral

The public health workforce is diverse, encompassing many professions in government, private sector, non-governmental organizations, tribal, and academic workplaces. They include behavioral scientists, environmental engineers and scientists, epidemiologists, lawyers, managers, nurses, physicians, and statisticians. Yet very few of those practicing public health actually have graduate public health training. Many members of the current workforce came to work in public health for a variety of goals and reasons. In order to fulfill public health’s core functions of assessment, policy development, and assurance many skill sets are needed. In the case of assurance for example, many public health workers must carry out safety net medical services for the poor and underserved populations. Thus, the range of training needed by the public health workforce and the work requirements are large and has expanded over the past few decades. This range of activities has made it increasingly difficult to maintain core public health functions. Against this backdrop, this session will examine the various employment dimensions for recruiting and retaining a well-qualified, diverse, and flexible public health workforce. Recruitment mechanisms and other organizational issues such as hiring processes and procedures, and selection of qualified and diverse candidates will be discussed. In addition, retention measures, such as job rotation and job enrichment will be included. In all these activities, it will be important to identify the roles and responsibilities of human resources officials involved in public health and understand the significance of the part they play in recruiting, hiring/selecting, and retaining public health workers.

Session Objectives: Describe four factors to be ocnsidered when developing recruitment mechanisms for filling public health worker positions, especially in reaching out to diverse communities. Describe four factors to be considered when developing mechanisms for the retention of qualified public health workers in the governmental and non-governmental work place.

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