| Members Present: |
Susan Allan,
William Barker, Ronald Brown, Diane Downing, C. William Keck (Chair), Hugh Tilson (via
teleconference), Martin Wasserman |
| Other Participants
Present: |
Elaine Auld, Melissa Clarke,
Annette Ferebee, Jennifer Henry, John Kress, Henry Montes, Tom Milne, Ron Merrill, Jane
Nelson, Carol O’Neill, Thomas Perez, Ted Pratt, Carol Roddy, Elizabeth Weist |
| Staff Present: |
Ron Bialek, Dianna Conrad, Sima
Patel, Linda Wilburn |
I. Opening Business
Dr. C. William Keck, Chair, opened the meeting, welcomed
all participants, and led introductions. The minutes from the previous Council
meeting on July 14, 1999 were unanimously approved.
II. Refining and Validating Competencies –
{Objectives 2, 4, 7, 8}
Ms. Diane Downing presented an update on Council progress
with refining and validating competencies, and promoting their use by academic and
practice institutions. She reported on a recent conference call of the Competencies
subcommittee that met with the purpose of identifying feasible next steps with the $40,000
funding received. The subcommittee is focusing the effort on individual
competencies based on the 10 Essential Public Health Services. Ms. Elaine Auld
suggested using the publications of Council member organizations to solicit feedback to
further refine and validate competencies. Also mentioned was the importance of
considering organizational competencies as well as coordinating competencies with Healthy
People 2010 goals and objectives.
Ms. Downing emphasized the project objective of coming up
with one standard set of minimum competencies that public health professionals can work
towards. Dr. Keck asked participants for information on any other competencies
initiatives being developed in the public health arena. Mr. Ted Pratt indicated that
Harvard University has developed a tool to help students define their own
competencies. This was in response to the difficulty observed when students were
asked to identify competencies and needs of the public health workforce. Others are
also making progress in the competencies area: the Society for Public Health Education
(SOPHE) is developing competencies for health educators; the American Public Health
Association (APHA) has been funded to develop environmental health competencies; and the
Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (ATPM) has developed preventive medicine
competencies. Other efforts focusing on competencies include work by Dr. Jane Nelson
at Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Dr. Kristine Gebbie at Columbia
University School of Nursing, as well as initiatives at Tulane University and University
of Pittsburgh. Mr. Ron Merrill suggested that cross discipline competencies be set,
with room for each sector profession to further specialize them.
Mr. Ron Bialek emphasized the need to determine a target
audience for the competencies. Mr. Tom Milne added that while the academic
institutions are a critical target in their role of training the next generation of public
health professionals, equally important are the local health departments as they may
represent the only public health training interface for many workers. Mr. Pratt
emphasized the importance of involving those who make budget decisions, especially in
state and local health departments. Dr. William Barker mentioned that because a good
majority of the 125 medical schools in the nation have community and preventive medicine
departments that produce public health professionals, medical schools should also be
included in the target audience for competencies. Dr. Susan Allan supported the
involvement of governing boards in order to bridge the individuals to the developed
curriculum. Mr. Tom Milne also encouraged the inclusion of state and local health
departments in the target audience as they engage in continuing education
Dr. Keck summarized the discussion on competencies:
- Concentrate on competencies that cross professional
boundaries
- Ensure that we look beyond schools of public health as we
see curriculum sets being used by public health training programs
- Make competencies broadly applicable if possible
Dr. Keck called for additional volunteers to join the
Council subcommittee. Ms. Elizabeth Weist indicated that she would ask for a
representative from the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) and Dr. Barker
agreed to find a representative from ATPM.
III. Healthy People 2010 – Abstract Submission
for Launch Conference {Objectives 5,7}
Ms. Sima Patel reported that, as per the July 14, 1999
meeting, an abstract was submitted for the Healthy People 2010 launch conference in
January 2000 on behalf of the Council. The abstract proposes to showcase 1999
Linkages award winners in a caucus format. Staff will notify Council members if the
abstract is accepted. Announcement of acceptance is scheduled for early
November. If accepted, Council members are encouraged to attend or volunteer to
present on behalf of the Council.
IV. State Association of County Health Officials
(SACHO) Demonstration Project – {Objective 7}
Dr. Keck reported on the SACHO Demonstration Project in
Ohio indicating that there is a very positive response to the project and support from
various Ohio public health agencies and academic institutions. Next steps include
the development of a survey instrument that is to be adapted from Dr. Barney
Turnock’s (University of Illinois at Chicago) surveys, "Questionnaire on Public
Health Practice Activities Conducted by State Health Departments in Cooperation with
Schools of Public Health" and "Questionnaire on Public Health Practice
Activities conducted at Schools of Public Health." The survey is to be
completed for the Ohio Public Health Association’s May 2000 Combined Public Health
Meeting, where the SACHO project has been offered a concurrent session slot. Dr.
Keck also reported that he is presenting the SACHO project at the Fall Association of Ohio
Health Commissioners meeting.
Mr. Pratt suggested the Ohio Association of Local Boards of
Health be asked to join the effort. Dr. Keck stated his intention to involve the
Ohio chapter of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA). It was noted
that the main challenge of the project will be involving academia in Ohio. Dr. Keck will,
however, initiate contact with Dr. Franklin Banks, the practice coordinator at Ohio State
University School of Public Health, who has indicated a strong interest in traineeships.
V. "Demonstrating Academic Excellence"
Paper – ASPH {Objective 1, 8}
Ms. Weist and Dr. Nelson provided the Council with an
update on the recent ASPH paper, "Demonstrating Excellence in Academic Public Health
Practice" produced by the Council of Public Health Practice Coordinators and thanked
all those who contributed efforts toward its completion. The report is a result of
the identification of barriers to public health practice, and responds to the lack of
attention given to applied teaching and academic support. Dr. Nelson also indicated that
the origins of the paper were due to a lack of career path for younger faculty. They
wanted to address ways to make public health practice more attractive to younger
faculty. They indicated that the intended audiences for the paper are deans and
tenure committees. The goal of the paper is to further the understanding of academic
public health practice and generate discussion about the "roles, relationships, and
requirements necessary to advance scholarship in the field of academic public health
practice."
Dr. Keck suggested that the paper’s audiences be
expanded to include the practice community and other academic institutions with public
health training programs in addition to schools of public health. He also suggested
that the Council endorse the paper with an official letter of support encouraging its use
by the deans. Council members agreed and further suggested that governing boards of
schools also be included in the target audiences and suggested its publication be extended
to non-traditional journals such as those in the medical field. Additionally, the
Executive Summary of the report is slated to appear in the Public Health Reports
September – October 1999 issue, with the entire report being showcased in the Journal
of Public Health Management and Practice, January 2000 issue.
VI. National Public Health Practice Research Agenda
– {Objectives 1, 5, 6}
Dr. Hugh Tilson reported on the Council’s Public
Health Practice Research Agenda. Recent Council developments on the agenda have
included a conference call meeting with Dr. Ruth Berkelman of the Office for Prevention
Research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as a meeting
with Dr. Michael McGinnis at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The RWJF meeting
included Mr. Bialek and Dr. Maurice Mullet (President, Public Health Foundation Board of
Directors). The Council remains hopeful of a possible relationship with RWJF in
support of the agenda. Mr. Bialek reported that the Council will pursue funding for
a national teleconference or web-based discussion in March 2000, participants may include
Dr. Tilson from the Council, and Dr. Linda Dahl, Dr. Berkelman, and Dr. James Koplan of
CDC.
Members were reminded of the Council’s session at the
APHA annual meeting – "Developing a National Public Health Practice Research
Agenda," on Monday, November 8, 1999 from 2:15 PM - 3:45 PM at the Hyatt Regency
Chicago in the San Francisco Room.
VII. Public Health Practice Research Forum Proposal
- {Objective – 1, 5, 6}
During the July 14, 1999 Council meeting, members noted
that there is no professional group of peers dedicated to the issue of public health
practice research. In response to this need, Council volunteers formed a subgroup
that proposed a Council spin-off Public Health Practice Research Forum with three primary
goals: to oversee development of the Public Health Practice Research Agenda; enhance and
encourage practice research by helping to create an environment conducive to such
research; and provide constituent advice on public health practice research.
Dr. Tilson further described the vision of the forum as an
advisory group to the research agenda. He clarified that the constituent groups for
the forum would be the present Council organizations, with potential for additions at a
later time. Preliminary plans include using some of the core Council funds
previously earmarked for the agenda to start up the forum and approaching RWJF for a
possible three year grant to support the forum and its activities.
Dr. Wasserman made a motion for the Council to steer the
public health practice research agenda with the forum serving in an advisory role.
The motion was seconded by Dr. Barker and unanimously approved by Council members.
Dr. Tilson also reported that he, with Ms. Mary Northridge,
and new associate editor Dr. Paul Halverson, are working to broaden the agenda of the American
Journal of Public Health (AJPH) to include emerging public health practice research
papers. Dr. Tilson is serving as editor of the new Public Health Action Reports and
solicited Council volunteers to serve as peer reviewers for the reports from the public
health practice field. He related that reviewing the reports would require minimal
work and each volunteer could expect 6 reports to review per month (a total 4 hours of
work at most), and agreed to have staff send out the template for reviewing the
submissions as soon as it is available. Mr. Pratt volunteered to be the first
Council reviewer of the AJPH Public Health Action Reports. Dr. Allan
suggested adopting this as a pilot project with plans to review the process in 6 months
before deciding to make it a permanent Council activity.
VIII. National Public Health Performance Standards
– {Objective 9}
Dr. Tilson made a motion to add an objective to the
Council’s work concerning the National Public Health Performance Standards
Program. The proposed objective states, "Advance the national agenda for
development, testing, and implementation of public health system performance standards,
with special attention to building the evidence-base for accountability and quality
improvement." Strategies to help attain this objective are proposed as follows:
- Link academic institutions with key players in the pilot and
field testing sites for the National Public Health Performance Standards Program.
- Establish Public Health Practice Research Forum to promote
development of public health practice research methods and building of the evidence-base.
- Seek to sponsor or co-sponsor, with other academic and
practice organizations, an annual public health practice scientific meeting.
This motion was seconded by Dr. Wasserman and unanimously
approved by Council members.
IX. Organizational Updates – {Objective 5}
NOTE: Complete written updates were provided by most
Council organizations
QUAD Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations
– Ms. Downing related recent activities of the QUAD Council including a landmark
collaboration with the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Nursing (ASTDN),
APHA, and the American Nurses Association (ANA) in pursuit of a grant from RWJF for a
Nursing Education Consortium dedicated to meeting the community’s nursing needs in
the 21st century. She also reported that the QUAD Council and ANA are preparing to
publish the "Scope and Standards of Public Health Nursing" document.
American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM)
– Ms. Carol O’Neill related three major projects at ACPM including a Preventive
Medicine Residency Program Directors’ Workshop where HRSA funding is allowing them to
organize annual workshops for preventive medicine residency program directors, a cost
effective way of meeting the information needs of these training programs. Also
ongoing at ACPM is a Preventive Medicine Careers Initiative aimed at educating medical
students about a career in preventive medicine, as well as a partnership endeavor forming
the Center for Children’s Health and the Environment.
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
– Mr. Merrill reported on recent HRSA activities including the development of two new
cooperative agreements with NALBOH and the Association of University Programs in Health
Administration (AUPHA). He also provided information on the Public Heath Training
Centers Program and the Public Health Special Project Grants Program as well as updates on
cooperative agreements between HRSA and ACPM, the Public Health Foundation (PHF), ATPM,
and ASPH.
Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (ATPM)
– Dr. Barker reported that this year, ATPM is a major part of the American
Association of Medical Colleges’ annual meeting agenda, furthering its goal of
increasing the number of residents in preventive medicine. He also indicated that ATPM is seeking to place more graduates in local health departments.
National Association of Local Boards of Health (NALBOH)
– Mr. Pratt reported that NALBOH is working on several important activities, while
establishing a liaison office in Washington D.C. NALBOH has created partnerships with
national public health organizations, academic institutions, and others to work on tobacco
control policies, environmental health educational tools for local board of health
members, leadership training resources, public health internship programs, and their
annual conference.
Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH)
– Ms. Weist reported that ASPH is involved with numerous activities and projects
linking its 29 member schools of public health with initiatives in the practice
community. She highlighted the work of the ASPH Practice Coordinators Council that
recently launched the Carl W. Tyler, Jr. Award for Excellence in Public Health Practice
and developed a paper attempting to define the scope of academic public health practice.
Association of State and Territorial Health
Organizations (ASTHO) – Dr. Wasserman reported that there are many examples of
state health department and academic partnerships, with specific examples in Louisiana,
Nebraska, Minnesota, and Georgia. He also indicated that the ASTHO Maternal and
Child Health project has formed formal linkages to several academic policy institutes via
the shared Partners for Information and Communication (PIC) cooperative agreement.
National Association of County and City Health Officials
(NACCHO) – Mr. Milne and Dr. Allan reported that NACCHO is engaging in several
projects involving local health departments and academic partners such as a satellite
event/teleconference entitled, "A National Town Meeting on Race, Class and
Health," the development of APEXCPH, work with the Pew Environmental Health
Commission, and their annual conference.
Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) –
Ms. Auld reported that SOPHE’s new quarterly journal, Health Promotion Practice,
will debut in November 1999 and its flagship journal, Health Education and Behavior,
published a variety of articles on the practice issues this year. She also informed
members of several SOPHE sponsored meetings that were devoted to researcher/practitioner
linkages. SOPHE, in partnership with HRSA, is studying the impact of health education
credentialing, with a full study expected in Spring of 2000.
American Association of Health Plans (AAHP) –
Dr. Ron Brown announced several ongoing initiatives at AAHP, including the signing
of a five year cooperative agreement with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of HRSA to
help address the health needs of mothers and children served by managed care plans.
He also mentioned ongoing collaborations with various academic institutions to provide
needed community health services in underserved areas.
American Public Health Association (APHA)
– Ms. Annette Ferebee reported that APHA is continuing work with the National
Public Health Leadership Development Network to identify and facilitate the expansion of
state and regional public health leadership training programs. She invited Council
members to attend the two sessions sponsored by APHA and the leadership network at the
upcoming APHA annual meeting in Chicago.
X. Healthy People Progress Reviews – An
Opportunity for Academic/Practice Linkages {Objectives 5,7}
Ms. Carol Roddy and Ms. Melissa Clarke from HRSA provided
information to the Council about Healthy People progress reviews. They explained
that since 1990, there have been three progress reviews for each chapter of Healthy People
2000, in addition to reviews for special population groups. Some of the reviews are
done through live satellite broadcasts, when dollars permit. They stated that Dr.
David Satcher, Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General is interested in
broadcasting live to schools of public health and state health department distance
learning coordinators. The Department of Health and Human Services is creating a
master website with downlink sites, many of which plan to offer continuing education
credits. Ms. Clarke requested that any Council members interested in further information
contact her via email at mclarke@hrsa.gov.
Recognizing that the public health community at large
under-utilizes these progress reviews, Council members volunteered to form a group to
brainstorm what Council member organizations can do to further utilize and expand the
reach of the reviews. Mr. Bialek suggested HRSA develop a schedule far in advance
for agencies and academic institutions to use. In addition, the Council should think
about ways for these reviews to be used for bringing agencies and universities together in
states for addressing local programs in attaining health objectives. Mr. Pratt
suggested looking into CSPAN broadcast opportunities and other models that work.
Initial volunteers to explore ways to bring academic and practice organizations together
around Healthy People progress reviews included Mr. Pratt, Dr. Wasserman, Dr. Allan, Dr.
Keck, Ms. Ferebee, Mr. Milne, and a representative from ASPH’s Practice Coordinators. Diane Downing will look into the availability of Ms. Pam Clarke of the QUAD
Council.
XI. Award for Student Excellence in Public Health
Practice {Objective 1}
Ms. Weist informed the Council about an ASPH Award for
Student Excellence in public health practice. The award would recognize student
achievement in a Master of Public Health program, including a $1000 travel expense for
enabling the winning student to go to the APHA annual meeting, a $500 check, and a
possible slot for a poster presentation at the Public Health Practice Caucus meeting of
APHA. Mr. Pratt suggested presenting a plaque to the sponsoring academic institution
as well as any associated community partners. Ms. Auld suggested publishing the
abstract from the winning student to further publicize the award and recognize the
student’s achievements. Ms. Weist requested Council co-sponsorship of the
award, and related that it would entail publicity for the award through Council media
(website, The Link, etc.), Council contribution of 2-3 volunteer reviewers, and an
evaluation to improve the award in future years while ASPH would play an administrative
role.
The Council members passed a unanimous motion initiated by
Dr. Wasserman and seconded by Dr. Ron Brown, to support the general concept of the
award. Members strongly recommend that the writing sample be removed and the points
for the abstract be increased.
XII. Linkage Activities
Ms. Dianna Conrad presented information on the formation of
a Council database on "Best Practice" Linkage Activities. As suggested at
the last meeting, she outlined potential fields and the basic structure of this database
that would catalog information about the various abstracts received for Linkages Awards as
well as those presented in the Link. She indicated that ultimately this electronic
database, in an Excel, Access, or similar format, would be accessible by the public health
community on the Internet. Members suggested adding ‘Essential Public Health
Services’ and type of agency (local health department, state health department,
school of public health, etc.) and activity cost categories to the list of fields. Members
agreed to further review the list and forward additional input to staff.
Ms. Conrad also presented a compilation of journals and
academic publications that publish public health practice articles. It was suggested
that the list identify those journals that are peer reviewed, and Council members were
encouraged to forward additions to the list or general suggestions to the staff before
eventual posting on the Council web site.
XIII. Other Council Activities
In other Council activities, Mr. Bialek noted that the Fall
issue of The Link was mailed out and that the Winter Issue would include the
Council performance review. He also mentioned that a future issue of The Link
will showcase an interview with Dr. Claude Earl Fox. Members were thanked for their
letters of support for the HRSA cooperative agreement with PHF. This cooperative
agreement is supporting the Council’s competencies activities.
XIV. Other Business
Dr. Keck introduced a discussion regarding Council decision
making processes for time sensitive matters between Council meetings. He related
that in most cases, the chair and staff confer on matters and execute decisions on behalf
of the Council. Council members agreed that the current process was satisfactory and
requested that e-mails be sent out indicating Council decisions made and actions taken
between meetings.
Dr. Keck stressed that the Council is a good working group
to involve in member organization activities and that the Council can be utilized more by
member organizations. For example, there is the potential to use it as a forum for
workforce issues. Developing strategies for more effective use of the Council by
its member organizations may be discussed at a future meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 PM.
***
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