Competency Driven Approach in Advancing Reforms Agenda: Reinventing India’s Public Health Education

Abstract

Today public health professionals face new and demanding challenges to improve health of the population and minimize health inequalities. The world suffers from the unappeasable tide of triple burden of disease, the threat of new pandemics, the environmental risks and weak health systems that impose severe burden on health services, systems and society, locally and globally. Disease knows no border; the developed and developing worlds are united by one scourge - the shortage of a public health workforce[1]. Recent public health events have emphasized the need to strengthen and develop the public health workforce. National Health Policy – 2017 by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, recognizes the need to revise health professional education keeping in view the changing needs, technology and the newer emerging disease trends[2]. Improvements in public health can only be realized through the development of a workforce that understands that “working differently means leading and learning differently”[3]. Competency based education (CBE) has witnessed a growing interest over the years in the field of especially for experiential learning and as a means for optimizing the preparation of health professionals[4, 5, 6].