It's not all sausage: The beauty of making good public health policy

Health Policy plays a crucial role in assuring the health of the public. New policy proposals abound at the local, state and national levels. How do we determine which policies should be implemented? Discussions of “good” policy often paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's comment on pornography, “I know it when I see it.” But good policy has certain attributes and these attributes can be identified and evaluated. Moreover, there are steps which can be taken during the policy development process to increase the likelihood of arriving at good public health policies; these skills should be taught to MPH students. Students pursuing a policy track in their degree studies should be required to demonstrate certain advanced skills. Yet the current competencies required for accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health do not identify the specifics of either a general or advanced policy skill set. Practitioners, students, and programs in public health should take steps to ensure the development of good public health policy. This presentation will propose a framework for analyzing policy, and identify the skills needed to create good public health policy.