Oral

The purpose of this session is to inform participants about the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals, which have been used by hundreds of public health agencies and academic institutions in their workforce development efforts over the past few years. In efforts to ensure continuous improvement and relevance of the Core Competencies, the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council) embarked on a process to update the Core Competencies in 2007. In 2008, a new draft was released for public comment. After receiving extensive feedback from APHA members and many public health workers, the Council finalized a new version of the Core Competencies. During this session, the newly adopted Core Competencies will be introduced, feedback received and how this feedback was addressed will be discussed, and ways the Core Competencies have been used to improve performance will be presented. By introducing the newly adopted Core Competencies and ways they can be used by agencies and leaders, participants will be provided with additional tools to help ensure a highly skilled workforce exists for serving their communities.

Session Objectives: 1. Explain the purpose of drafting a new set of Core Competencies 2. Articulate how the Core Competencies have been used for workforce development by at least one (1) local health department 3. List steps to develop plans for implementing and using the Core Competencies

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)