Shaping policy for health: What competencies do we need?

Introduction: This project identified and validated workforce competencies needed by public health professionals to shape policy for health.

Methods: Secondary and primary data collection helped identify competencies which were vetted through telephone interviews with 101 public health professionals. Validation proceeded using cross-sectional surveys (n=528) using two samples: prior interviewees (n=91 reachable; response 86%) and organizational contacts (n=9,729; response 6%). For each competency, participants reported Likert-scale importance, frequency of use, and current and needed proficiency.

Results: The final list of 21 competencies are grouped in five domains: 1) problem identification; 2) policy analysis; 3) advocacy; 4) bureaucratic implementation; and 5) evaluation. Each domain exhibited strong internal consistency (Ą = .73 to .93). More respondents reported experience with public policy (81%) and organizational policy (79%) than systems (68%) or built environments (66%). Perceived importance was high (mean=79%). Skill gaps were reported in each domain: 1) problem identification 63%; 2) policy analysis 64%; 3) advocacy 66%; 4) bureaucratic implementation 66%; and 5) evaluation 72%. Many respondents expressed interest in training and using the competencies to hire, train and evaluate staff. The list of competencies can be downloaded: www.dhpe.org/HPEC_Comps_Phase_Final.pdf.

Conclusion: Most competencies are important to 80% of respondents, regardless of how regularly applied on the job. Importance ratings of some domains reinforce research identifying why policy implementation fails. Training is needed and wanted by staff to shape policy for health. The competencies are being used to develop a trans-disciplinary training curricula.