Kathleen Amos, MLIS, Assistant Director, Academic/Practice Linkages, Public Health Foundation

Are you passionate about population health? Is community benefit work a core part of what you do? Contribute to the development of competencies to support the population health workforce!

The Public Health Foundation (PHF) is working to develop a set of competencies for population health professionals. These Priority Competencies for Population Health Professionals (Population Health Competencies) are designed primarily for non-clinical hospital, health system, public health, and healthcare professionals engaged in assessment of population health needs and development, delivery, and improvement of population health programs, services, and practice. This may include activities related to community health needs assessments, community health improvement plans, implementation of community-based interventions, and coalition building.

Development of this competency set began in early 2015 during a session at the Association for Community Health Improvement’s (ACHI’s) National Conference in which participants identified competencies within the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) most relevant to hospital needs related to population health. Since that time, the draft Population Health Competencies have been refined based on feedback from ACHI and Catholic Health Association members, as well as others within the population health community, and a review of community benefit and population health competencies resources. The current draft contains 33 competencies organized into five domains: Community Health Assessment, Community Health Improvement Planning and Action, Community Engagement and Cultural Awareness, Systems Thinking, and Organizational Planning and Management.

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 will be useful in guiding population health workforce development, including the creation of training, training plans, and academic curricula, as well as job descriptions, performance objectives, and more to support the population health workforce.

Your feedback on the current draft of the Population Health Competencies is appreciated and will help in refining and finalizing these competencies for release later this year. Do the Population Health Competencies capture essential skills for the population health workforce? Should additional skills be added? What would help population health professionals in building their skills and competence? There are many ways to share your thoughts:

• Submit feedback through an online feedback form
• Add a comment in the Comments section below
• Send an email to Kathleen Amos at [email protected]
• Tweet to @thePHF
• Post a comment on PHF’s Facebook page

Feedback on the draft Population Health Competencies is being accepted through March 31, 2018. Share your thoughts to help further shape this competency set and ensure it best meets the needs of the population health workforce!