Our nation's public health workforce is dwindling due to budget cuts, permanent elimination of positions, an aging workforce, and other factors. To address the public health worker shortage, the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council on Linkages) is working with researchers, academics, and public health practitioners in efforts to assure adequate numbers of skilled and competent workers for the future.
The Council on Linkages' largest and most recent effort to address the public health worker shortage included charging its
Pipeline Workgroup with directly surveying thousands of public health workers, asking them how and why they entered the public health workforce. (
The survey's main focus was on governmental public health as that is where worker shortages are most critical.)
In the spring of 2010, the Council on Linkages launched a
public health workforce survey to over 70,000 current and former public health workers, asking them to let their voices be heard!! This was the
first large scale effort to disseminate a survey directly to public health workers. Survey results will be used by the Council on Linkages to develop "evidence-assisted" recruitment and retention strategies for our nation's public health system.
Featured Items:
- Want to view preliminary findings from the Council on Linkages survey? Click here
- To access our collection of recruitment and retention resources, click here
- Council on Linkages efforts to map the pipeline of public health workers began years ago. Learn more