News from the Public Health Foundation - Original Date: August 15, 2006
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Skilled people are at the heart of our public health infrastructure. Without an adequate supply of competent workers, almost nothing else matters. Emergency protocols and policies can’t protect us without trained people to implement them. And a state-of-the-art laboratory system can’t run itself, no matter how much money you have. |
In this issue |
- Make retaining your best workers a priority.
- Keep your own skills sharp.
- Offer learning opportunities matched to the competencies that are most needed.
- Start pumping tomorrow’s workforce supply lines.
- Look at the big picture: assess your entire system for workforce development
Retain your best workers  |
1. Make retaining your best workers a priority. Why do people leave? “In many cases, it’s not about the money,” says Chris Day, lead staff to the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice. “Our work examining other industries for the Council found that most workers leave because their managers aren’t good supervisors or because the organization isn’t a good place to work.” |
Although most public health groups believe low pay is a big issue affecting retention, many professions like teaching and nursing have learned that improving the work environment often can make up for lower pay. And a poor place to work can send even well paid workers running.
Maintain your own skills 2. Keep your own skills sharp.
It’s up to each of us to keep our skills sharp so we can do the best job for the community, customers, or clients in changing times. Feel like you have too much work and no time for learning?
Train for most needed competencies3. Offer learning opportunities matched to the competencies that are most needed.
Nearly all major public health workforce reports in the last two decades have emphasized the need for public health to incorporate competencies into the way our field approaches training and performance. Groups ranging from the Institute of Medicine to the Council on Linkages to the Pew Health Professions Commission all point to competencies as the basis of a high performing public health system.
Help recruit tomorrow's workforce  |
4. Start pumping tomorrow’s workforce supply lines. Approximately 20% of local health department employees will be eligible for retirement within five years, according to the 2005 National Profile of Local Health Departments (NACCHO). Who will fill these vacancies? In and outside of government, will tomorrow’s labor pool be sufficiently skilled and diverse to keep the public healthy? |
Factor in today’s short supplies of nurses, dentists, and other health professionals in many communities, and it’s easy to see why worker shortages are a public health issue.
Assess your entire system 5. Look at the big picture: assess your entire system for workforce development.
One of the 10 Essential Public Health Services is to “Assure a competent public health and personal health workforce" (EPHS #8). Collectively, making sure we have the people we need to protect the public’s health is the job of schools, civic groups, hospitals, credentialing organizations, public health agencies, universities, policy makers, and many others in the public health system.
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