|
Background
The Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) are a set of skills desirable for the broad practice of public health. They reflect the characteristics that staff of public health organizations (collectively) may want to possess as they work to protect and promote health in the community. The Core Competencies are designed to serve as a starting point for academic and practice organizations to understand, assess, and meet training and workforce needs.
View the Core Competencies
The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice adopted Tier 1 and Tier 3 Core Competencies as well as minor changes to Tier 2 on May 3, 2010. Please click on the links below to view the Core Competencies:
- Click here to view the adopted Core Competencies (without examples) in html or PDF
- Click here to view the adopted Core Competencies (with examples imbedded) in html or PDF
- Click here to view the adopted Core Competencies (with examples provided as footnotes) in html or PDF
- Guidance Definitions
The Core Competencies can help:
- Course providers develop and evaluate competency-based training content and curricula
- Learners assess and meet their training needs
- Practice organizations craft job descriptions
- Practice organizations implement staff performance reviews
- Assess knowledge and skill gaps of individual employees or of entire organizations
- Develop discipline-specific competencies
- Prepare for accreditation
- Draft workforce development plans
- Create training plans
Top
Examples of Core Competencies Use
View Examples on TRAIN
Learn how public health institutions and agencies have used the Core Competencies in their workforce development and training efforts by logging on to TRAIN and selecting the "Competencies" tab.
Additional Examples
The North Carolina Public Health Academy created a self assessment aimed at determining how staff at the Public Health Training Centers (PHTCs) are using the Core Competencies. Click here to view the results of the self assessment!
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) is working to establish a Workforce Competency Framework for its 4,000 employees. The DPH Workforce Competency Framework uses the Core Competencies' eight domains, and will serve as a foundation to guide all planning efforts to promote workforce development.
Livingston County Department of Health, NY has used the Core Competencies in two ways: 1) to improve its performance appraisal form; and, 2) to conduct workforce needs assessment. Click here to view more information about how this health department used the Core Competencies.
Olmsted County Public Health Service (OCPHS), MN updated its Performance Evaluation System (PES) in 2007-2008 by incorporating relevant Core Competencies into the PES. OCPHS used the Model for Improvement to update the PES as part of a Quality Improvement (QI) initiative.
The Council collected examples of Core Competencies use during its APHA session entitled Core Competencies: A Roadmap for Action. The session was held November 18, 2003 and examples are listed in this document.
Submit Examples
Share with others how your organization has used the Core Competencies – to add examples, please download this form and email it to Council staff. Alternatively, if you are registered on www.TRAIN.org, log on and select the "Competencies" tab to submit your examples electronically.
Top
Why You Should Use the Core Competencies:
- They are a consensus set of skills desirable for the broad practice of public health
- They have been endorsed by 17 of the nation's leading public health organizations
- They are a product of extensive research
- They are being used by hundreds of health departments across the nation
Top
Quotes from Practitioners:
“The Core Competencies are a roadmap for public health career development, performance assessment and improvement.”
Janet Place, MPH, Director, Southeast Public Health Training Center, North Carolina Institute for Public Health, University of North Carolina
"The competencies represent a universal tool that allows all of us to comprehensively assess and improve the skills of individual public health workers.”
Jeff Gunzenhauser, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
“The progression [of the Core Competencies] from one tier to the next is logical and systematic.”
Bill Riley, PhD, Associate Dean, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health
“The Core Competencies serve as a set of complementary skills, knowledge, and attitudes that enable a public health worker to perform work related to the Essential Services of Public Health...”
Kathleen Smith, RN, MSN, MPH, Assistant Nursing Director, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Top
For More Information...
View the Core Competencies
View Examples of Use
Submit Examples of Use
Why You Should Use the Core Competencies
Access Tools You Can Use
Read Additional Information
Top
Tools You Can Use
Search for Competencies-Based Courses - TRAIN is the nation’s premier learning resource for all professionals who protect the public’s health. Visit www.TRAIN.org to search the database for courses that address the Core Competencies.
The Core Competencies were mapped with the Essential Public Health Services (Essential Services) to ensure that they would help build the skills necessary for assuring the delivery of these services.
- Click here to see how the Tier 1 Core Competencies were mapped with the Essential Services.
- Click here to see how the Tier 2 Core Competencies were mapped with the Essential Services.
- Click here to see how the Tier 3 Core Competencies were mapped with the Essential Services.
The recently adopted Core Competencies were mapped with the original Core Competencies (adopted in 2001) to help users of the Core Competencies determine the similarities and differences between the two sets.
- Click here to view a crosswalk of Tier 1 Core Competencies with the original set.
- Click here to view a crosswalk of Tier 2 Core Competencies with the original set.
- Click here to view a crosswalk of Tier 3 Core Competencies with the original set.
Competencies to Curriculum Toolkit - This guide can help describe and integrate core and discipline-specific competencies into health professions and continuing education training programs.
Competency Assessment Tool - This framework connects health administration competencies to example work experiences and Masters-level courses that help workers obtain necessary competencies.
Guidelines for Assigning Competencies and Skill Levels to Courses - The TRAIN Course Provider Reference Guide has information that can assist course providers with assigning Core Competencies and Bioterrorism and Emergency Readiness competencies to courses, as well as attributing a skill level of aware, knowledgeable, or advanced to training programs.
Management Self Assessment - A state health department developed this tool to assess the skills and competencies of its managers.
Framework for Online Training - This framework can be used to develop online competency-based training initiatives that emphasize cross cutting public health skills. This appendix to the framework for online training can be used to select course modules that are designed to improve the skills of learners in specific competency areas.
List of Competencies Sets - This table lists competencies sets for public health-related occupations and professions. It was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office of Workforce and Career Development.
Development of Discipline-Specific Competencies - The preface to the Draft Applied Epidemiology Tier 2 Competencies describes how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists developed a set of discipline-specific competencies, in part by building on the eight Core Competencies domains. This draft questionnaire is a useful model of how to solicit feedback from the field about the relevance of proposed competencies.
Top
Additional Information
Background Information
You can learn more about how the Council drafted the Core Competencies by viewing the list of sources that were consulted during development. According to a 2006 Council on Linkages survey on Core Competencies use by academic institutions, over 90% of survey respondents said they had integrated the Core Competencies into their curricula. Learn in what ways these institutions used and integrated the Core Competencies into their curricula!
Core Competencies Presentations
Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals: Feedback Data - This presentation prepared for the Council meeting in June 2009 outlines: demographics of individuals that commented on the Tier 2 Core Competencies draft. It also provides a summary of feedback received, and the competency review process.
Core Competencies Webcast - Kathy Miner, PhD (Emory Rollins School of Public Health) presented this information about how to write competencies to the Core Competencies Workgroup in February 2008.
Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals: The New Look in Public Health Practice - This presentation, prepared for the Texas Public Health Training Center, describes what the Core Competencies are, how they were developed, and how they relate to other workforce development initiatives, and identifies a number of their current and potential uses.
Public Health Practice: A Students Guide to Workforce Initiatives - This presentation, prepared for the students at the University of Texas at Houston School of Public Health, focuses on workforce initiatives of significant importance to students, with an emphasis on workforce competencies:
Introduction
Core Competencies
Public Health Practice Initiatives
Conclusion
Top
Conference call meetings (all agendas and minutes are PDFs):
Friday, March 26, 2010 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET. See the agenda.
Monday, April 6, 2009 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET. See the agenda and minutes.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET. See the agenda and minutes.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. ET. See the agenda and the minutes.
Monday, February 25, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. ET. See the agenda and the minutes.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. ET. See the agenda and the minutes.
For further information on the workgroup:
Background Paper (PDF)
List of Workgroup Members
If you would like additional information on the workgroup, please contact Pamela Saungweme at psaungweme@phf.org or 202-218-4424
|
