Developing a workforce development plan is a critical component of accreditation’s
Domain 8. The
Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals from the
Council on Linkages is one accepted framework that health departments can use to create a workforce development plan. Prioritizing the competencies to meet daily and long term challenges of workforce development was the topic of a breakout session at both the
NACCHO and
NALBOH 2011 annual conferences. PHF President,
Ron Bialek, and PHF Senior Quality Advisor,
John W. Moran, led sessions on how to align health department priorities with core competency development through use of a prioritization matrix, a trusted Quality Improvement (QI) tool.
This is the first time a prioritization matrix has been used in conjunction with the core competencies model. A prioritization matrix helps teams narrow down options by comparing choices in the context of key criteria. Prioritizing the
Best Method of Cooking Tasty Popcorn was used as a teaching example so participants could grasp how to assign a weighted score to multiple options to make an informed decision.
Participants then practiced using the prioritization matrix with 4 of the 8 core competency domains so they understood how to use the tool in their health departments. The session accomplished two main objectives:
- Taught participants how to use a versatile QI tool
- Encouraged critical thinking about relevant data before deciding where to allot scarce workforce development resources
After both conferences, more than 100 participants had learned the value of using a QI tool to focus workforce development needs. Following the NACCHO session, one soon-to-be retired local health officer stated that he was going to use this model to help develop the job description of his successor—an example that prioritization can be used in various ways to accomplish workforce development. View the PowerPoint slides below.