Are you passionate about population health? Are you involved in developing and implementing population health programs and services? Is community benefit work a core part of what you do? The newly released Competencies for Population Health Professionals (Population Health Competencies) are for you!

 

The Population Health Competencies are a set of skills desirable for population health professionals. Based on the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies), the Population Health Competencies are primarily designed for hospital, health system, public health, healthcare, and other professionals engaged in assessment of population health needs and development, delivery, and improvement of population health programs, services, and practices. This may include activities related to community health needs assessments, community health improvement plans, implementation of community-based interventions, and coalition building.

 

The Population Health Competencies align with the Core Competencies, a set of foundational skills for public health professionals, and can help strengthen the connection between public health and healthcare. These competencies can be used to guide population health workforce development efforts, including the creation of training, workforce development and training plans, academic curricula, job descriptions, performance objectives, tools, and other resources to support the activities and growth of population health professionals.

 

To support population health professionals and organizations in building the knowledge and skills described in the Population Health Competencies, two training plans are available through the TRAIN Learning Network to accompany this competency set:

Each of these training plans contains a series of curated courses selected from the TRAIN Learning Network’s thousands of quality training opportunities to specifically address a specialized topic. Learners can select from among the courses in the training plan to customize their learning experience to their needs.

 

The Public Health Foundation (PHF) thanks the population health community and everyone who contributed to the development of the Population Health Competencies. This development began in early 2015 during a session at the Association for Community Health Improvement (ACHI) National Conference in which participants identified competencies within the Core Competencies most relevant to hospital needs related to population health, and was shaped by input from numerous population health professionals and organizations over the next few years. Drafts of the Population Health Competencies were refined based on feedback from ACHI and Catholic Health Association members, Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice member organizations and members of the Core Competencies Workgroup, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials’ Center for Population Health Strategies, and others within the population health community, as well as a review of community benefit, population health, and competencies resources.

 

We invite you to download a copy of the Population Health Competencies, begin using them, and let us know what you think. Your continued engagement and feedback will help ensure this competency set best meets the needs of the population health workforce. Questions about the Population Health Competencies, examples of how you are using them, and suggestions for resources and tools that will support those activities are also welcome. Subscribe to PHF E-News to stay informed about events, resources, and other updates related to the Population Health Competencies, and reach out to at [email protected] me at any time to share your experiences and ideas.