The Future Of Public Health: Ensuring An Adequate Workforce

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The Future Of Public Health Ensuring An
Adequate Workforce

• AAVMC/ASPH Joint Symposium
• On Veterinary Public Health
• April 24, 2007
• Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP (Emeritus)
• Executive Director
• American Public Health Association

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Current Workforce Numbers In Brief

• 500,000 in workforce
• Average age 46.6
• 20-50 eligible for retirement now
• Went from 220 workers / 100,000 Americans in 1980
  to 158 / 100,000
• Demand for talent will increase by as much as 25
  to 2010
• 20 state vacancy rate
• 14 Annual state turnover rate
• 6,400 annual U.S. graduates from schools of
  public health
• 20 go into government jobs
• Other public health programs add additional
  graduates (gt2,000/year)

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Public Health Worker Density
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National Efforts To Build Workforce

• Expand scholarship loan repayment programs
  (Senators Hagel / Durbin)
• Reinvest in Title VII workforce programs
• Enhance leadership development programs
• Expand internship fellowship programs
• Undergraduate public health
• Public Health Career Mart

Need to build a pipeline Early engagement at 6th
- 7th grade level Engaging youth (e.g. RWJ YES
program)
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Public Health Competencies

• Biostatistics
• Epidemiology
• Environmental health sciences
• Health systems administration
• Social behavioral health

• Informatics
• Communications
• Community based participatory research
• Global health
• Ethics
• Genomics
• Culture competency
• Policy law

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NBPHE A New Tool To Ensuring Individual
Competency

• National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE)
• MPH/MSPH or higher
• Ensure that students and graduates from schools
  and programs of public health accredited by the
  Council on Education of Public Health (CEPH) have
  mastered the knowledge and skills relevant to
  contemporary public health practice
• Voluntary certification exam summer 2008

We give anyone a badge?
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Lifelong Skills Development Remains An
Essential Need For All

• Less than 20 of Leadership have formal training
  in public health
• Only 44 of all workers have any formal academic
  training and less had graduate degrees
• Many need training to refocus from clinical to
  public health

Gerzoff 1997 HRSA 1989
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Other Tools For Ensuring Individual Competency

• Short courses
• Lifelong learning
• Other discipline certifications
• Health education
• Preventive medicine
• Community health nursing
• Environmental health
• EMS
• Others

• Annual Meetings
• Continuing Education
• Traffic Safety Institute
• AJPH other publications

APHA provides some and expanding
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Ensuring Agency Performance

• NACCHO operational definition
• Public Health Ready
• Performance Standards
• Accreditation system in development
• APHA will house initial accreditation entity

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• Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP
• Executive Director
• American Public Health Association
• WWW.APHA.ORG

Protect, Prevent, Live Well