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Advancing the public health workforce to achieve organizational excellence
Richard Riegelman & Brenda Kirkwood: Training Public Health Professionals: Exploring the Role of Community Colleges

Date: 2/25/2011 11:13 AM

Related Categories: Council on Linkages, Workforce Development

Topic: Council on Linkages, Workforce Development

Tag: Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals, Council on Linkages, Workforce Development

Richard Riegelman, MD, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology-Biostatistics, Medicine and Health Policy & Founding Dean, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University

Brenda Kirkwood, MPH, DrPH candidate in Health Behavior, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University
 
With an expanding scope and a diminishing supply of well-trained workers, the field of public health continues to look for innovative ways to equip its workforce with the knowledge and skills to protect the population’s health.  A resource exhibiting potential to contribute to the training needs of the public health workforce lies within two year, or community, colleges, and is worthy of further exploration.
 
Nearly 12 million students, of which 36 percent are minorities, are currently enrolled in the approximate 1,200 community colleges across the country.  Like public health, their focus is on the community – offering an accessible and affordable education to all who seek it.
 
In addition to introducing public health concepts to a new, diverse audience wishing to either enter directly into the workforce or to continue on for additional study, community colleges can provide training to those already working in public health.  In particular, public health associate degree and certificate programs may assist in developing the skills of public health workers as set forth in the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals, with a particular emphasis on the Tier 1 competencies, preparing entry-level public health professionals to identify, describe and apply the core public health concepts in protecting and promoting the community’s health.
 
There is growing recognition among public health audiences of the untapped potential within community colleges.  A new Healthy People 2020 objective provides leverage to put this interest into action.  The objective reads:
Increase the proportion of 2 year colleges that offer public health or related associate degrees and/or certificate programs.
To assist in providing curricular guidance on the content of these programs, prototype degree and certificate programs have been drafted based on identified public health workforce needs, and ability to provide career ladders through articulation with 4-year institutions and, to the extent possible, with graduate education.  Four specialist prototype programs are proposed to address specific public health workforce needs in: environmental health, public health preparedness, public health informatics, and pre-health education.  Descriptions of these programs were recently included in an article of the Community College Journal.  In addition, a generalist option is also being considered and intended for students interested in transferring to public health and related majors and minors at 4-year institutions.
 
An article providing additional information on the potential role of community colleges in addressing public health workforce needs appears in the February 2011 theme issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, focused on Healthy People 2020: Education for Health.  The article can be accessed here.
 
Active involvement of the public health practice community is needed to identify the specific workforce needs in which community colleges can fulfill.  So, how can community colleges best serve the public health workforce?
 
Please share with us your comments and ideas on ways to ensure the prototype public health degree and certificate programs align with the Core Competencies and address workforce needs.  Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to Brenda Kirkwood at: bak@gwmail.gwu.edu.
 
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The PHF Pulse Blog welcomes conversations and commentary from contributors. Posts may not necessarily reflect the views of Public Health Foundation.

Comments

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Colleen McKay Wharton

5/16/2011

I am so happy to see this here, and in fact could not agree more with the concept of exposing community college students to the field of public health. What better way to introduce this large (and ever-growing) group of students to the many areas of work that they may have never considered? Further, with the increasing number of 4-year schools offering degrees in PH, a natural 'career ladder' is in place in many states. There are in fact sample curriculum for the 101 level, which has been most helpful in helping some of our community colleges actively work to develop their own. This is an area we are addressing in NJ...

Elizabeth Weist

4/8/2011

While wrapping up a project to specify public health-specific learning outcomes for all undergraduates (Educated Citizen project), ASPH is beginning to undertake a similar initiative for undergraduate public majors and minors. We are very interested in working with representatives from community colleges in this effort and will be reaching out accordingly. See http://www.asph.org/document.cfm?page=976 for more info on work ASPH has done over the last several years on undergraduate public health education. Thanks to Dick Riegelman and Brenda Kirkwood for your leadership in this area!

Janet Place

3/14/2011

Thank you so much for posting this. I have always been interested in how to utilize community colleges in the career pipeline. I was very involved in the development of the Tier 1 competencies and have always hoped that they would guide both community college and undergraduate public health education. I agree that the ideal should be a masters or at least a BPH, but I am also realistic. In many rural areas, the source for education is the community college. I see this as an important step in the process. If we can develop some 2 year degrees that lead to BPH completion programs I think this would be a great way to train people in place which increases the likelihood that they will stay and serve their communities. Though many states have BSN requirements for public health nurses, other states cannot force this. Here in NC, many of the public health nurses have two year degrees. The increase in the number of RN-BSN programs has helped many of them get this training. I could see the same thing happening with public health workers. I would love to know more about this work and how I might become involved.

Sandra Brennan

3/12/2011

Hello, Thank you for this opportunity to express my opinion. From my standpoint and educational experiences in public health, efforts to educate public health professionals should be aimed at the baccalaurate and masters degree programs, and NOT in the community college's associate degrees. The HP 2020 objective should read to increasing baccalaureate and master's degrees in public/community health.

sandra sheridan

3/12/2011

In my State there is a law stating that Environmental Health professionals at all levels need to have a 4 year science degree, the State allows this to be ignored as a result there are a number of Managers and Administrators possessing General Education Diplomas or High School Diplomas. These have problems grasping the big picture, giving misdirection and confusing circuitous direction. Not to fail to mention affected by "local politics". I hope that every state is not like Florida's EH. While Community College might be an idea of possible merit, as long as the jobs (at least in Florida) are low pay, dead end, badly managed and feature GED's and High School managers/ administrators, you are not going to attract anyone even mildly educated......The system is broken.

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