Kathleen Amos, MLIS, Assistant Director, Academic/Practice Linkages, Public Health Foundation
Th
e feedback is in. Over the past five months, hundreds of public health and population health professionals have participated in an open comment period focused on the
Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies), sharing feedback that will guide the revision of this important resource for public health workforce development.
The Core Competencies describe foundational or crosscutting knowledge and skills for professionals working in public health. As the field changes, the Core Competencies are regularly reviewed and revised to ensure these competencies continue to reflect the reality of public health and meet the needs of the public health workforce.
Now that the feedback is in, the
Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council on Linkages) and its
Core Competencies Workgroup are getting to work on drafting revisions. The feedback received spans all aspects of the Core Competencies – from specific content to the structure of the competency set to how it is presented for organizations to use – and has highlighted a number of areas that will be considered as the revisions are made, including:
- How to continue to increase harmonization between various efforts that impact workforce development within public health, such as the Essential Public Health Services, Public Health 3.0, Strategic Skills for the Governmental Public Health Workforce, Certified in Public Health exam, and Council on Education for Public Health accreditation criteria
- How to expand, reinforce, incorporate, or address in other ways content areas such as health equity, social justice, racism, environmental health, emergency preparedness and response, administration and management, and advocacy
- How to update the Cultural Competency domain to make it more current and inclusive
- How to make the Core Competencies easier to digest and use
All of these considerations will be top of mind as the revision moves forward, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on how well we are doing when a first draft of the revisions is available for comment later this spring.
Thank you to everyone who has shared their thoughts so far; we look forward to your continued engagement throughout the revision process.