TRAIN, the nation's premier learning management network for professionals who protect the public’s health, can support TRAIN affiliates - state health departments, public health training centers, educational institutions, and national organizations that have funded a customizable TRAIN portal - as they apply for accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). TRAIN can also assist health departments in states that are not part of the TRAIN network. Health departments who are not located in an affiliate state can access TRAIN's features below at no cost to support their accreditation efforts.

 

 

TRAIN enables learners to search for and take courses by Core Competencies, and for these courses to appear in a learner’s TRAIN transcript. Using TRAIN for identifying and taking competency-based courses can help health departments meet PHAB Measure 8.2.1 A, which requires a health department to use nationally-adopted competencies. In addition to the Core Competencies, TRAIN also contains courses that can be searched for by two other sets of nationally-adopted competencies – the Medical Reserve Corps Core Competencies and the Public Health Preparedness and Response Core Competencies. 

 

 

When submitting a workforce development plan for accreditation, health departments must demonstrate how they will monitor and track employee training. By becoming a course provider on TRAIN, health departments can add their own competency-based courses to the selection of courses offered through TRAIN. Not only will a health department’s employees be able to access, take, and document completion of these courses on TRAIN, the health department can track employees’ attendance, progress, and completion of these courses. Furthermore, this documentation can be produced electronically through TRAIN. For more information on how to become a course provider and add courses to TRAIN, contact the Public Health Foundation's (PHF) TRAIN Team.

 

 

For accreditation, health departments are required to submit documentation on implementation of a workforce development plan. Documentation can include training curricula to address an identified gap, staff attendance at state or national conferences, and staff attendance at training sessions provided by other organizations that address staff professional development needs. Through TRAIN’s competency self-assessment – a self-report document that helps public health professionals assess knowledge and skill levels with respect to each of the Core Competencies – health departments can gather necessary information that can be used for addressing individual and staff competency gaps. The self-assessment can be completed by individual employees and shared with supervisors. In turn, health departments can identify and address gaps in individual competence and prioritize training to meet staff development needs. As staff becomes more knowledgeable on key dimensions of public health practice, health departments become stronger and more efficient in their delivery of the Essential Public Health Services.

 

 

Through TRAIN, organizations can create training plans – a group of courses designed to address specific gaps in knowledge, skills, and competence – and direct staff to access and complete those training plans. Creating training plans is an action health departments can take and incorporate into their workforce development plans to help improve individual competence, fulfill organizational training needs, and lead to a more prepared public health workforce.

 

PHF invites state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments – as well as other public health, public safety, and emergency preparedness organizations, hospitals, health centers, and community-based organizations – to work directly with PHF in developing web-based training plans and posting them to TRAIN. Organizations developing and posting training plans to TRAIN will be able keep track of learners progressing through the training plans. Contact PHF’s TRAIN Team if you would like to learn more about how your organization can create, build, and post training plans to TRAIN.

 

 

Attention to continuously improving health department programs, services, and activities is critical to protecting and promoting population health. QI plans, a requirement by PHAB, help guide health departments in their QI efforts by focusing on the development and use of a deliberate and defined improvement process. TRAIN includes several QI courses that can be included in an agency-wide QI plan to help improve employees’ QI knowledge and skills.

 

 

TRAIN is only one tool of many from PHF that can support a health department’s accreditation application. For 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.