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Advancing the public health workforce to achieve organizational excellence
Responding to the Public Health Community: The Council on Linkages to Revise the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals

Related Categories: Council on Linkages, Workforce Development

Topic: Council on Linkages, Workforce Development

Date: 1/14/2014

The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council on Linkages) thanks the public health community for participating in its review of the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) and providing feedback that will help shape the future of the public health workforce. More than 350 people, including practitioners, educators, and researchers in governmental public health, academia, non-profit organizations, and the private sector, engaged in the feedback process and provided over 1,000 comments on the Core Competencies. Feedback received is guiding revision of the Core Competencies to ensure these competencies continue to meet workforce needs.

 

Feedback on the Core Competencies was collected throughout 2013, from the Council on Linkages’ decision in March to begin reviewing the Core Competencies until the end of December, and includes a variety of suggestions, such as:

Additional comments focus on resources the Council on Linkages can provide to help organizations use the Core Competencies, including:

  • More examples of what is meant by each competency
  • Guidance on how competencies apply to various positions within public health organizations
  • Additional sample job descriptions that incorporate the Core Competencies
  • New examples that show use or attainment of the Core Competencies

The number and thoughtfulness of the comments received, as well as the level of interest in the review and revision process, has reinforced for the Council on Linkages the importance and use of the Core Competencies by the public health community.

 

In the coming months, the Council on Linkages will work to revise the Core Competencies. The Council on Linkages has committed to adopting and making available the revised Core Competencies by June 30, 2014.

 

To stay informed during the Core Competencies revision process, subscribe to the Council on Linkages Update or follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #phcompetencies. For more information, contact please Cheryl DeAguiar at [email protected].

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Anthony Schlaff

6/6/2014

The Expert Panel on the MPH, a group formed as part of ASPPH’s Framing the Future Task Force, has issued a report that calls for a dramatic shift in the focus of the MPH away from core competencies and more towards specialized areas of knowledge Currently, many programs use competency domains that align with the Council and that focus on similar notions of preparing students to work with public health data and methods of intervention, and to function appropriately in team, organizational and community settings. Therefore, despite the fact that most programs do not use the Council’s core competencies as there graduate education competencies, there is a lot of resonance between the priorities of the Council and in the curricula of MPH Programs. I think this resonance is now threatened. The Expert Panel suggests that the core competencies be taught only at the level of knowledge and comprehension, that they take up no more than 1/3 of the curriculum, and that they not be part of the practice or culminating experience. I think this is a significant step backwards from whatever progress has been made since the 1988 IOM report in getting MPH programs to prepare their graduates for practice-based, as opposed to academic, careers. I think it important that there be robust dialogue on this issue, particularly from those who work in the area of linkages between academia and practice. CEPH will soon be revising its criteria, and it will be critical for those who want the MPH to emphasize core professional practice competencies to speak up. You can review the task force report here: http://www.aspph.org/userfiles/MPHPanelReportFINAL_2014-01-09-final.pdf I also have a commentary that is available online head of print at the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice http://journals.lww.com/jphmp/Abstract/publishahead/Framing_the_Future_s_Expert_Panel_Report_on_the.99837.aspx Anthony L. Schlaff, MD, MPH Director, Public Health Program Professor,Department of Public Health and Community Medicine Tufts University School of Medicine 136 Harrison Avenue Boston, MA 02111 phone: (617) 636-6584 fax: (617) 636-4017 [email protected]

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Responding to the Public Health Community: The Council on Linkages to Revise the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals