Eye on PI: Performance Improvement Professionals Share Ideas for Refining Competencies

Advancing the public health workforce to achieve organizational excellence

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Date: 4/10/2017 4:02 PM

Related Categories: Performance Management, Quality Improvement

Topic: Performance Management and Quality Improvement, Workforce Development

Tag: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals, Council on Linkages, Management, Performance, Performance Management, Quality Improvement

As part of the effort to refine a set of draft Competencies for Performance Improvement (PI) Professionals in Public Health, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) has been collecting input about PI competencies from the public health community. This input has been received from PI professionals, as well as public health professionals with knowledge and experience in developing discipline-specific public health competencies. The PI Competencies are but one example of discipline-specific competency sets inspired by the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals.

Input has been gathered in a variety of ways, including:

Two virtual listening sessions, one with members of the Performance Improvement Competencies subgroup, which is part of the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals Workgroup of the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice, and the other with members of the Public Health Performance Improvement Network (phPIN).
An in-person listening session at the recent Open Forum for Quality Improvement. Attendees worked in small groups to brainstorm ideas about the discussion topics, documenting their thoughts.
Emails, phone calls, and one-on-one conversations.

To date, input has been provided by nearly 100 PI professionals from governmental public health agencies, academia, and national public health organizations. This information will be used in conjunction with a literature review to create a robust environmental scan for refining the draft competencies for PI professionals.

What Have We Been Hearing?
So far, responses have indicated that PI professionals need skills in areas such as using PI tools, data literacy (selection, management, and evaluation of data metrics and measures), aligning PI work within and among organizational and community plans (e.g., strategic plan, health improvement plan), building a culture of quality, and developing the workforce as it relates to PI. In addition, PI professionals must be savvy at team development and management, as well as project coordination. While input indicates that PI professionals have numerous strengths, many find it challenging to learn how to be a PI professional, and struggle with demonstrating the value of PI to leadership and the governing entity.

How Can You Be Heard?
If you have not already provided us with your input, please do so by May 15, 2017 via any of the following:

Submit input through the online form
Tweet to @thePHF
Post a comment on PHF’s Facebook page

Does the input we’ve received so far align with your work in PI? Are there other perspectives we should consider? You can still share your input and be a part of the process to refine Competencies for Performance Improvement Professionals in Public Health.

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