Abstract
Identifying training gaps in public health competencies and skills is a first step in developing priorities for advancing the workforce. Our purpose was to identify training gaps in competencies and skills among local, state, and nonjurisdictional public health employees in Washington State. Our secondary aim was to determine whether training gaps differed by employees' work-related and demographic characteristics. We used data from our training needs assessment of the public health workforce, conducted as an online cross-sectional survey in Spring/Summer of 2016. Employees from governmental local, state, and nonjurisdictional public health departments in Washington State. Training gaps were calculated for 8 public health competencies and 8 skills, using a composite score of respondents' ratings of their "training confidence" and "training need." For each domain and skill area, we calculated the percentage of associated items, where respondents rated their training needs as high and their confidence as low to create scores ranging from 0% to 100%. The largest training gaps in public health competencies were in the Financial Planning and Policy Development domains. For skills, Quality Improvement and Developing Effective Communication Campaigns had the largest training gaps. In adjusted models, female employees or employees working in local health departments in select Washington State regions had higher training gaps in Financial Planning, Policy Development, and Quality Improvement, relative to male or state health department employees. Employees who worked in specialized programs, such as Communicable Disease Control, and Maternal, Child, and Family Health, had higher training gaps in Financial Planning and Developing Effective Communication Campaigns than those who worked in Administrative and Support Services. We identified important training gaps in several competency domains and skills. Findings are informing decisions about tailoring training opportunities for public health practitioners in Washington and other states.
Highlights
Training public health practitioners is pivotal for building effective public health practices and tackling a multitude of diverse tasks to improve population wellness
We found that public health employees in Washington State reported the highest training gaps in financial planning, policy development, quality improvement, and developing effective communication campaign
We found that female public health employees had lower training gaps compared to their male counterparts across the public health competencies and strategic skills
Summary
Training public health practitioners is pivotal for building effective public health practices and tackling a multitude of diverse tasks to improve population wellness. Undertrained staff may be less able to secure funds, identify community health needs, and prepare for and respond to a public health emergency. National survey such as the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) reports that public health practitioners serving both rural and urban populations are having the highest training gaps in financial management, policy development, system thinking public health competencies, and skills in developing a vision for health.[1,2] Equivalently, the 2018 Accountable Community of Health (ACH) Participant Survey, conducted by Center for Community Health and Evaluation (CCHE), identifies that effective communication and quality improvement in communities need further improvements.[3, 4]. There is limited research on the public health training gaps, among local and tribal health departments serving rural populations
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