Growing the Local Public Health Policy Infrastructure through Collaborative, Competency-based Training: The Nebraska Health Policy Academy

The Nebraska Health Policy Academy seeks to assist local and state public health practitioners to develop and implement evidence-based public policy. We formed a partnership between the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and the UNMC College of Public Health (as part of a CDC grant to increase public health infrastructure in the state of Nebraska), with the goal of training Nebraska's public health workforce to use health policy as a public health tool. The Academy is a competency-based approach designed for teams of public health practitioners in state and local government and their essential partners. Activities incorporated into the nine-month model include two in-person learning retreats and a series of distance-based learning modules. Instruments used for action learning include case studies, expert presentations, and an action planning toolkit, all of which are tailored based on a pre-assessment of participants' current competency and training priority in areas of health policy. Expected results include the creation of new or stronger implementation of current policies designed to impact the public's health. This presentation will show our model for team-based, collaborative action learning using a competency-based curriculum, lessons learned from the pilot year of program implementation, and our plans to advance this program over the coming years.