141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

287695
Changing the rewards: A framework for CBPR impact measures in promotion and tenure

Monday, November 4, 2013

Allyson Kelley, MPH CHES , Department of Community Health Education, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
Robert Aronson, DrPH , Department of Public Health Education, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
CBPR is an effective approach to prompt social change and improved health in communities. However, traditional researchers and institutions resist CBPR, because it: distracts from discipline specific research, requires extensive community involvement, takes time away from teaching/ research duties, and may not lead to the types of products typically used to evaluate a faculty member's impact (grants, articles in “high impact” journals). If universities truly desire community engaged scholarship in their faculty, they must embrace CBPR and change promotion and tenure guidelines that currently inhibit community engaged research approaches. More research is needed to examine how universities use promotion and tenure guidelines to encourage CBPR in traditional researchers.

We examined promotion and tenure guidelines at one southeastern university recognized nationally for community engaged scholarship. We present a framework for how institutions can measure CBPR based on five community impacts (1) improvement in the quality of life in the community, (2) contributions to the development of new policies, (3) research skills development among community and academic partners, (4) strengthening of community voice in determining future policies and directions, and (5) extent to which the research knowledge was disseminated to academic and community partners and translated into systems changes. Community-impact versus scholarly-impact driven promotion and tenure guidelines are needed to elevate CBPR in the minds of institutions, communities, and traditional researchers. National recognition for community engaged scholarship does not translate to promotion and tenure guidelines driven by CBPR. Discipline specific promotion and tenure guidelines inclusive of CBPR impact measures must be established.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related research
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Describe five community impact measures used to evaluate community engaged scholarship. Differentiate between promotion and tenure guidelines that promote community impact versus scholarly- impact. Discuss how CBPR impact measures can be used to promote social change and improved health in communities served by institutions and traditional researchers.

Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Public Health Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to be an abstract author on the content I am responsible for because I have been involved in CBPR for over three decades. I am familiar with promotion and tenure guidelines and social impact measures.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.