The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #38427

Janet L. Place, MPH and Mary Davis, DrPH, MSPH. NC Institute for Public Health, UNC School of Public Health, CB# 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165, 919-966-7921, Janet_Place@unc.edu

Session will present the goals, objectives, and approaches to training the public health workforce through improving workforce development systems. The Southeast Public Health Training Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (SPHTC) and the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice at the University of Washington have taken the distinctive approach of focusing on the workforce development system rather than then the individual public health worker. These two Centers cover large geographic areas that include six different states each. Each state has its own public health infrastructure and organization, and capacity and readiness to train the public health workforce to assess, assure, and develop policy. With such diverse partners and constituents, these Centers recognized that each partner needed to have the ability to assess its workforce as needed and design and implement workforce development plans appropriate to its own situation. Additionally, these Centers have worked to identify existing quality training modules that can be shared between states to leverage scarce resources. The SPHTC model included identifying academic and practice partners in each state, working with all partners to create a workforce development system assessment tool that examines the assets and partnering arrangements between the academic and practice partner in each state, and creating an on-line resource for training modules available within the region. Session will include a discussion of challenges and lessons learned of working over such a diverse region.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe models for strengthening workorce development systems in two six state regions.
• Describe methods of building individual state capacity for workforce development through academic and practice partnerships.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.