As more state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments prepare documentation to apply for Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) accreditation, TRAIN, the nation's premier learning management network for professionals who protect the public's health, can be an invaluable resource. Specifically, TRAIN can support accreditation efforts for TRAIN affiliates – state health departments, public health training centers, educational institutions, and national organizations that have funded a customizable TRAIN portal – in the following ways:
1. Use nationally adopted competencies such as the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) (Measure 8.2.1 A)
For a health department to best serve its community and carry out its mission, it is important to have a competent workforce with the skills and experience needed to perform its’ duties. The Core Competencies are a consensus set of skills identified by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice as being desirable for the delivery of the Essential Public Health Services. The Core Competencies are integrated into TRAIN, which means they can be assigned to courses and conferences to describe the skills learners will build by completing those trainings. This is particularly important as health departments who offer courses can assign competencies and post them to TRAIN so staff members can register for and take these courses. Health departments can generate reports on workforce participation in competency- based courses noting specific Core Competencies addressed by these courses.
2. Identify gaps in competence (Measure 8.2.1 A)
Through use of a competency self-assessment, a self-report document accessible through TRAIN that helps public health professionals assess knowledge and skill levels with respect to each of the Core Competencies, health departments can identify and address gaps in individual competence to meet staff development needs. In addition to the availability of the self-assessment document, TRAIN’s survey function (affiliate only feature), can also be used to deploy employee self-assessments based on the Core Competencies or other competency sets.
3. Create training plans (Measure 8.2.1 A)
As workforce development plans (strategies to improve health outcomes by enhancing the training, skills, and performance of public health workers) are established and implemented, health departments and their staffs are able to improve their overall performance in delivering Essential Public Health Services. A critical component of the overall workforce development plan includes training plans (a group of courses or trainings tasked to an employee that will improve job-related knowledge and skills). By using TRAIN’s training plan feature (affiliate-only feature), health departments can create training plans to meet organizational training needs and address gaps in competence that lead to a stronger, more prepared public health workforce.
4. Document and track employee progress and attendance (Measure 8.2.2 A)
When submitting the workforce development plan for PHAB accreditation, health departments are required to demonstrate how they will monitor and track employee training. TRAIN’s
vast data collection and reporting capabilities support health departments in collecting training documentation required by PHAB. Documentation can include courses that address an identified competency or skill gap, staff attendance (course rosters) at local, state and national conferences, and online course completions of courses shared by training providers outside of the health department.
5. Include improvement trainings/courses into a written quality improvement (QI) plan (Measure 9.2.1 A)
A QI plan guides how health departments will manage, deploy, and review QI throughout the organization by focusing on the delivery of products and services aligned to the community’s needs. The QI plan describes the processes and activities that will be put into place to ensure that quality deliverables are produced consistently. TRAIN includes many
QI courses that can be included in an agency-wide QI plan to improve employee’s QI knowledge and skills.
TRAIN is only one tool of many from the Public Health Foundation that can support a health department’s accreditation application. For those health departments in the process of gathering accreditation documentation, PHF offers accreditation assistance specific to
quality improvement,
performance management, and
workforce development. To learn more, visit
PHF’s Accreditation Preparation page.
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Health departments who reside in a TRAIN affiliate state can greatly benefit from using TRAIN in their PHAB accreditation efforts. If your state is not a TRAIN affiliate, TRAIN can still help with accreditation preparation. Stay tuned for “Five Ways TRAIN Can Help Non-Affiliate States With Accreditation.”