Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #101278

Hugh Mainzer, DVM, MS, NCEH/ EHSB, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MS F-28 4770 Buford Hwy, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717, (770) 488-3138, hmm2@cdc.gov and Alison Loupos, MS, VMD, University of Pennsylvania, 842 Bob White Lane, Secane, PA 19018.

The publication "The Public Health Workforce: An Agenda for the 21st Century" describes the essential services of the public health profession and the competencies related to these activities. Many of these services can be provided by veterinary professionals working in a public health setting. For this reason, a set of veterinary-specific competencies will be presented that tailor veterinary education, skills, and experience to better respond to present and future public health workforce needs. Established skills and successful community health impacts enlighten the more general public health profession as to what veterinarians are capable of offering to the practice of community health protection and improvement. A benefit associated with proposed veterinary-specific public health competencies is that veterinary schools can use them in benchmarking their educational programs to build proficiencies in areas of critical public health need. Today's veterinarians may better realize that they have the necessary knowledge and practical abilities to serve as effective public health practitioners and leaders.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session the attendee will be able to

• Understand that more veterinarians need to be part of the public health infrastructure.
• Understand the current make-up and competencies of the public health workforce
• Understand those veterinary abilities and proficiencies that have commonality among all clinically trained public health practitioners.

Keywords: Workforce, Emerging Health Issues

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.