Public health workforce development

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Public Health Workforce Development

TRAIN

Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals

Learning Resource Center

Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice

Reach and Preferred Formats for Professional Training Materials

Bioterrorism Preparedness: Education and Training Resources

Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness Training

Terrorism Preparedness Training Capacity

E-Learning Institute (Central and Eastern Europe Distance Learning Project)

Other Public Health Workforce Development Resources

Public Health Workforce Development

TRAIN - TrainingFinder Real-time Affiliate Integrated Network

TRAIN is the nation’s premier learning resource for professionals who protect the public’s health. TRAIN is a unique web-based learning management solution that provides a robust clearinghouse of on-site training and distance learning opportunities available in local, state, and national jurisdictions.

TRAIN houses information on over 7,900 public health courses offered by more than 2,200 providers. Visit www.TRAIN.org to start searching courses.

TRAIN is designed to serve the growing needs of three distinct customers:

Learners - All professionals who protect the public’s health who require training and continuous learning to be effective
Course Providers - Public and private organizations that deliver training related to public health
TRAIN Affiliates - Organizations responsible for managing, providing, and assessing workforce training information, such as state public health agencies, state and regional training centers, and first responder organizations.

TRAIN is a free resource for both Learners and Course Providers and offers myriad benefits.

Learners can:

Search or browse the nationwide database for on-site or distance learning courses, conferences, and trainings
Sign up for e-mails about new courses
Create personal learning transcripts of competency-based training
Provide and view feedback about course experiences, effectiveness, and difficulty
Register online for courses, live courses, and conferences

Course Providers can:

Efficiently publicize courses to over 225,000 registered learners
Manage online registration, student rosters, waitlists, and certification
Collect feedback from learners online
Post course materials and discussion topics
Create online assessments and evaluations to measure the progress of learners

TRAIN Affiliate Program - The Custom Solution to Managing Organizational Training Needs

As TRAIN's popularity among the Learner and Course Provider community grows, public health agencies across the country have expressed an interest in integrating TRAIN's powerful learning management technology into their organizations. TRAIN Affiliates can customize their TRAIN websites, utilizing their state logos and color schemes. States can track the continuing education activities of their workforce, generate reports to manage employee progress, and plan strategies for future educational goals.

To ensure that TRAIN evolves to meet current and future needs, the TrainingFinder Affiliate Consortium (TAC) was created. TAC comprises state-designated leaders from each of TRAIN’s 23 participating states, the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), and the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Division of Global Migration and Quarantine who meet throughout the year to discuss strategies to strengthen public health workforce development in the U.S. using TRAIN as well as other technologies and policies.

To accommodate this need, PHF now invites agencies to incorporate this technology into their internal technical infrastructure. (See who’s aboard the TRAIN.) As a result, TRAIN Affiliates now have the capability at an organizational level to:

Effectively identify and manage both the immediate and long-term continuing education needs for their workforce
Access both local and national distance learning and classroom-based training designed for public health professionals
Locate "just in time" training to respond to critical public health concerns such as terrorism and natural disasters
Register learners, track their progress, and issue certificates of course completion
Create powerful reports to support and analyze performance and accountability

Equally important, TRAIN Affiliates recognize the benefits of being part of a large conglomeration of agencies. Affiliates can actively share learning information and training programs through a uniform system. On a continual basis, TRAIN Affiliate Consortium workgroups identify both desired and needed system enhancements, which are often funded by multiple states "sharing" in the development costs. In fact, TRAIN Affiliates saved more than $11 million over just 5 years based on economies of scale achieved through TRAIN when compared to typical learning management system costs. (Source: ASTD)

TRAIN Documents

TRAIN Quick Facts

TRAIN Affiliate Information

TRAIN Learner Information

TRAIN Course Provider Information

Additional Information and Support for Learners and Course Providers and to Become a TRAIN Affiliate

If you have any questions about becoming a learner or course provider or would like to learn more about TRAIN, please contact:

Lois Banks
TRAIN Director
Public Health Foundation
1300 L Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005
202.218.4427 (phone)
202.218.4409 (fax)
lbanks@phf.org (e-mail)

Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals

The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council), with funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration and staffing by the Public Health Foundation, developed a list of Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals. The Council adopted the list in 2001 after it had been reviewed by more than 1,000 public health professionals. The Core Competencies represent a set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for the broad practice of public health. They transcend the boundaries of the specific disciplines within public health and help to unify the profession.

The Core Competencies are being used to help develop discipline specific competencies, assess workforce training needs, develop workforce training curriculum, and develop job descriptions and performance evaluations. To support competency-based workforce development, PHF integrated the Core Competencies and the Bioterrorism and Emergency Readiness Competencies into its learning clearinghouse, TRAIN. This integration enables individuals, public health agencies, and training providers to easily determine the availability of competency-based courses and track learning according to competencies.

Visit the Core Competencies website to view a list of the competencies, submit and view examples of use, and access tools to help integrate the competencies into your workforce development plans.

For more information about this project, please contact Ron Bialek.

Learning Resource Center

The Learning Resource Center (LRC) distributes and markets high-quality, low-cost training and resource materials to more than 100,000 public health and healthcare professionals annually. LRC is a self-supporting private-public partnership that operates at no cost to the partner agency, organization, or individual. It operates on a cost-recovery basis, keeping prices to a minimum. It provides customers with quality, affordable materials; one-stop shopping; fast delivery; notification of a new materials through our electronic announcement, Hot Off the Presses; on-line ordering on a user-friendly, secure website; multiple toll-free phone lines; and excellent customer service.

LRC partners with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University at Albany’s School of Public Health, the California Distance Learning Health Network, and other agencies and organizations to provide training and resource materials to help strengthen the capacity and infrastructure of public health agencies and systems. LRC assists its partners by reducing printing costs; increasing distribution through marketing; and eliminating dissemination headaches.

LRC offers publications, videotapes, CD-ROMs, resource manuals, physician guides, posters, and patient brochures. Materials include information in such areas as preparedness and emergency risk communication, epidemiology, minority health, immunizations, appropriate antibiotic use, program evaluation, maternal and child health, and performance management. Some of the courses are accredited for continuing education credits. Local, state, and federal health agencies; schools of public health; universities, colleges, and medical schools; hospitals; managed care organizations; and others use these materials.

LRC promotes training and resource materials through a semi-annual print catalog; numerous conferences; direct mail campaigns; links on CDC and other organization/agency websites; ability to list items on www.TRAIN.org; and partnerships with other organizations.

Click here to visit the Learning Resource Center.

For quick and easy telephone ordering call 1-877-252-1200.

For more information, please contact Antoinette Williams.

Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice

For 15 years, the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council), which was staffed by PHF, was involved in many efforts to strengthen the public health workforce. Learn about the Council's activities and access tools related to:

The Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals – after an extensive review and public comment period, the Council adopted in 2001 a consensus set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for the broad practice of public health;
Practica and other academic/practice linkage activities – the Council has compiled examples and resources to help academic institutions and public health agencies and organizations to work together to, among other things, develop and evaluate practicum and internship programs; and
Public health worker recruitment and retention – the Council convened a forum in January 2005 and has developed resources to highlight evidence from public health and other fields about effective strategies to address worker shortages.

For more information on these efforts, please contact Ron Bialek.

Reach and Preferred Formats for Professional Training Materials

A new PHF study can help organizations estimate how many professionals they reach through public health training videos and CD-ROMs, as well as help them deliver training in formats preferred by customers. Among the findings from a survey of over 370 customers who ordered Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-produced training products:

An estimated 20.9 individuals viewed each CD-ROM or videotape ordered.
Academic / educational institutions had the most mean viewers per copy of ordered videotape or CD-ROM.
PHF found several factors to be significantly related to the number of viewers per product ordered, including work setting, perceived relevance of the product to training needs, and whether the customer duplicated the material. The study describes how to estimate audience size using a general multiplier of 20.9 or a more refined formula, if data about those factors are available.
Thirty percent (30%) of respondents said they organized group viewing sessions of the CDC products.
Approximately two-thirds (67%) of respondents used the material individually for self-study.

According to the CDC-funded study, CD-ROM and web-based formats are good ways to provide public health training to today's professionals in a variety of work settings. Although CD-ROMs and web-based training were in the top three format preferences across work settings heavily represented in the study, there were significant differences in customer preferences for academic, governmental public health, healthcare, and other settings. As examples:

Satellite broadcasts remain desirable to governmental public health agencies, but fewer healthcare or academic organizations say that satellite broadcasts are the best way for CDC to reach them.
Academic / educational institutions say they prefer DVDs.
Professionals in governmental public health and healthcare services are looking for quick reference guides (fact sheets or "cheat sheets") and publications (print or electronic books or guides) as a means of professional education.

For more information, e-mail Jacalyn Carden.

Bioterrorism Preparedness: Education and Training Resources

This compilation of tools aims to help public health agencies improve their training capacity and workforce preparedness for bioterrorism and other public health threats. It includes needs assessment and planning tools, training resources, examples of academic/practice partnerships, information on distance learning systems, and links to nationally defined worker competencies. (Last updated: October 2003)

For additional information, contact Jacalyn Carden at 202-218-4415 or Jacalyn Carden

Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness Training

In 2004, PHF helped the National Association of County and City Health Officials match local public health agency leaders with three CDC-funded Centers of Public Health Preparedness to foster the transfer of knowledge and skills in several areas of bioterrorism preparedness. In two-day meetings, participants gained skills to improve performance in areas such as risk communication; training, exercises, and drills; and partnerships for preparedness.

For more information about this project, please contact Jacalyn Carden.

Terrorism Preparedness Training Capacity

PHF assists the CDC in communicating new and valuable terrorism preparedness training opportunities to a large audience of public health and health care professionals. PHF has implemented a quick-response process that continues to ensure the increased capacity of states and other agencies to prepare their health and emergency response workforce for bioterrorism events. PHF efficiently provides answers to training needs by distributing timely and accurate information through a multi-tiered approach that involves:

Communicating training opportunities via E-News announcements to more than 50,000 subscribers;
Posting preparedness training opportunities on TRAIN, a nationwide learning management system;
Receiving and responding to direct requests for training materials from individuals and organizations in a timely manner. For example, PHF responds to more than 300,000 requests for videotapes from hospitals, emergency room physicians, private clinicians, public health professionals, and others;
Providing assistance to CDC and DHHS in the planning and implementation of terrorism preparedness education and training strategies;
Evaluating the reach and effectiveness of information and paths of dissemination to further improve capacity and provide accountability; and
Exhibiting and publicizing preparedness training materials at 40-50 state, regional, and national conferences annually.

A list of materials available to public health and health care professionals can be found on PHF's online bookstore.

To become involved in these activities or to learn more about free and low-cost training materials, visit any of the above links or contact Linda Wilburn.

E-Learning Institute (Central and Eastern Europe Distance Learning Project)

PHF assisted and evaluated CDC and Open Society Institute (OSI) efforts to build the public health distance learning capacity of central and eastern European countries. The OSI-funded project consisted of:

A two week e-Learning Institute training program convened by the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia in August 2001 for six competitively selected country teams;
A second e-Learning Institute convened by the CDC and hosted by the School of Public Health, University of Debrecen, Hungary, including training for four new country teams and an advanced program for graduate of the first Institute;
Capacity building grants to countries provided by OSI; and
Technical assistance, mentoring by CDC staff, and peer information sharing.

Results - Training evaluations indicated that the CDC-coordinated Institute:

Met the learning goals of the participants;
Increased participants' confidence in their abilities to implement e-learning programs and systems in their countries; and
Strengthened their plans and skills to develop e-learning systems.

As part of its lasting impact, the program strengthened ties among teams and sparked plans to build a Distance Learning Consortium for Central and Eastern European Countries.

This project is closed. For more information about this project, please contact Jacalyn Carden.