With this month’s launch of Evaluating Emergency Preparedness and Response Trainings: A Knowledge Repository, the Public Health Foundation adds one more resource to a growing collection of materials for developing, accessing, and evaluating public health training. Built in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, this online repository provides one-stop access to evaluation tools developed by the CDC-funded Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Centers (PERLC). It is designed to serve as a guide and framework to promote evidence-based evaluations of trainings and learning products, with a particular focus on emergency preparedness and response, and measure their impact toward improving workforce readiness.

 

Structured around the Kirkpatrick model for evaluating training, the knowledge repository includes training evaluation templates and guides organized by the four Kirkpatrick training evaluation levels; course and exercise materials; and links to other PERLC-developed toolkits, guides, and resources. These tools and resources are intended to provide support for the emergency preparedness and response workforce, including organizations, institutions, and programs, interested in improving and measuring the impact of their emergency preparedness and response learning products, but may also be useful to anyone engaging in training evaluation.

 

This new resource complements existing resources available through PHF to support high quality training efforts. The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice’s (Council on Linkages’) online Guide to Improving and Measuring the Impact of Training presents a collection of strategies and methods aimed at enhancing training activities, as well as references to literature on training and evaluation of training. Developed to help training institutions and programs, trainers, public health organizations, and sponsors of training strategize around improving and measuring the impact of their training efforts, this guide is designed to grow as new resources are identified, and submissions of new tools, examples, and literature references to help implement the strategies and methods described in the guide are welcome.

 

The development of quality, competency-based training is further supported by the Council on Linkages’ Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies), a consensus set of foundational skills for all who are engaged in the field of public health, and access to training is facilitated by TRAIN, a national learning network for training professionals who protect and improve the public’s health. TRAIN offers thousands of courses from nearly 4,000 providers. Evaluating Emergency Preparedness and Response Trainings: A Knowledge Repository and the Guide to Improving and Measuring the Impact of Training are both accessible through TRAIN’s Resources section, and the Core Competencies, Public Health Preparedness and Response Core Competencies, and Public Health Preparedness Capabilities are integrated into TRAIN to enable learners to search for courses that will help build these skills.

 

These and numerous other resources related to workforce development, quality improvement, and performance management are available through the PHF website, and suggestions for new resources are always appreciated. Visit the website and share your thoughts on what will help you improve your training and evaluation activities. Suggestions and questions are welcome in the Comments section below or by email to kamos@phf.org.