Donna L. Richter, EdD, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Health Sciences Building, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, Dorothy Cumbey, PhD, Office of Quality Management, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, 2600 Bull Street, Columbia, SC 29201, Jerry Dell Gimarc, MA, Center for Health Services and Policy Research, University of South Carolina, School of Public Health, Carolina Plaza, Columbia, SC 29208, and Kara M. Montgomery, DrPH, Arnold School of Public Health, Office of Public Health Practice, 800 Sumter Street, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, 803-777-0057, karam@sc.edu.

As part of a grant from the Southeastern Public Health Training Center, the USC Arnold School of Public Health and the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) are working together to develop a workforce development plan for South Carolina’s public health workforce. A thirteen item open-ended telephone survey was conducted to determine what other states were creating or had designed in this area. Survey responses were transcribed and a note-based analysis conducted. A focus of the survey was examining existing collaborations between schools of public health and state departments of health. Eleven states were chosen for the survey. Fourteen surveys were completed over a two month time period after identifying key contacts in both the state health department and a school of public health. Results indicated that state health departments and schools of public health generally collaborated to some extent in the area of public health workforce development, specifically in training and the offering of graduate and/or certificate programs. Certificate programs, however, are only in eight of eleven states. The results are being used to assist South Carolina in the development of a public health workforce development plan.

Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of the session, the participants will be able to
• Describe the population included in "public health workforce."
• Identify specific collaborations between schools of public health and state health departments in the area of workforce development.
• Identify common funding sources for public health workforce development.

Keywords: Workforce, Survey

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.