Curricula to teach the current workforce how to shape policy for health

Introduction: Public health professionals need to enhance their policy skills. This presentation provides an overview of a competency-based curricula on policy change.

Methods: Twenty-one workforce competencies were identified and validated. An advisory committee with federal, state and local government employees advised the curricula team from 2007-2009. Theories, concepts, methods and tools were adapted from several disciplines outside public health: political science, public policy, public administration, urban planning, and sociology. Adult-learning principles guided the development of materials and activities. By mid-February 2009, the team piloted select curricula workshops nine times reaching 250 professionals.

Results: Two curricula levels were developed. Level 1 is a one-day overview of select concepts and tools from the five competency domains. Level 2 presents the sequence of competency domains in five interactive, two-day workshops: 1) problem identification; 2) policy analysis; 3) advocacy; 4) bureaucratic implementation; and 5) evaluation. Level 2 is structured to follow a general policy change process. Two case examples were developed: childhood obesity in a school setting, and secondhand smoke in public settings. An orientation to the curricula will demonstrate how concepts, tools, and case examples reinforce one another and help participants to be more strategic about policy change.

Conclusion: To ensure the workforce can shape policy for health, Level 1 curricula is appropriate for conferences. Level 2 curricula can be delivered in states or municipalities to help teams enhance their policy skills. The curricula address the Essential Service of developing health-supportive policy and provide information relevant to the CHES competency on advocacy.