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Assessing the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities of Public Health Professionals in Big City Governmental Health Departments.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:To identify essential knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for and characterize gaps in KSAs of professionals working in large, urban health departments. DESIGN:A survey was disseminated to potentially eligible supervisors within 26 of 28 health departments in the largest, most urban jurisdictions in the country. A supervisor was eligible to participate if he or she supervised at least 1 staff member whose highest level of education was a master's degree. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS:A total of 645 eligible supervisors participated in the workforce survey for a response rate of 27.1% and cooperation rate of 55.2%. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):Supervisors were asked to rate the importance of KSAs to their masters-level staffs' work and indicate their staffs' proficiency. RESULTS:Fifty-eight percent of supervisors reported supervising staff with a master of public health/master of science in public health degree. More than 30% of supervisors indicated that all of the 30 KSAs were essential. Four of the top 10 KSAs rated as essential by supervisors pertained to the ability to communicate. The top skills gaps perceived by supervisors were professional staffs' ability to apply quality improvement concepts to their work (38.0%), understanding of the political system (37.7%), and ability to anticipate changes (33.8%). CONCLUSIONS:Public health practitioners receive training in methods, theories, and evidence-based approaches, yet further investment in the workforce is necessary to advance population health. A focus should be placed developing strategic skills rather than advancing narrow specialties. Findings from this research can guide the creation and implementation of training curricula and professional development programs offered within local health departments or targeted to their staff, as well as satisfaction of accreditation requirements. By focusing on building strategic skills, we can ensure a public health workforce that is equipped with the KSAs necessary to practice Public Health 3.0 and leaders who are able to serve as their communities' chief health strategists.

SUBMITTER: McGinty MD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6078486 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep/Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Assessing the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities of Public Health Professionals in Big City Governmental Health Departments.

McGinty Meghan D MD Castrucci Brian C BC Rios Debra M DM

Journal of public health management and practice : JPHMP 20180901 5

<h4>Objective</h4>To identify essential knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for and characterize gaps in KSAs of professionals working in large, urban health departments.<h4>Design</h4>A survey was disseminated to potentially eligible supervisors within 26 of 28 health departments in the largest, most urban jurisdictions in the country. A supervisor was eligible to participate if he or she supervised at least 1 staff member whose highest level of education was a master's degree.<h4>Setting a ...[more]

PMID: 29240613

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Project description:ObjectivesTo examine the role of a formal public health degree as it relates to core competency needs among governmental public health employees.DesignThis cross-sectional study utilizes the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). Bivariate relationships were analyzed by conducting χ tests of respondents' supervisory level and reported skill gaps. Multivariate logistic regressions of reported skill gaps were performed holding gender, age, race/ethnicity, highest degree attained, current employer, role type, tenure in current agency, and public health certificate attainment constant.SettingNationally representative sample of government public health employees.ParticipantsA total of 30 276 governmental public health employees.Main outcome measureSelf-reported competency skills gaps.ResultsAmong nonsupervisors, those with a public health degree had significantly lower odds of reporting a competency gap for 8 of the 21 skills assessed. Among supervisors/managers, those who had a formal public health degree had significantly lower odds of reporting a competency gap in 3 of the 22 skills assessed. Having a degree in public health was not significantly related to an executive's likelihood of reporting a skill gap across any of the 22 skills assessed. Regardless of supervisory level, having a public health degree was not associated with a reduced likelihood of reporting skill gaps in effective communication, budgeting and financial management, or change management competency domains.ConclusionsPossessing a formal public health degree appears to have greater value for skills required at the nonsupervisor and supervisor/manager levels than for skills needed at the executive level. Future work should focus on longitudinal evaluations of skill gaps reported among the public health workforce as changes in public health curricula may shift over time in response to newly revised accreditation standards. In addition, public health education should increase emphasis on communication, budgeting, systems thinking, and other management skills among their graduates.

Project description:BackgroundIn Brazil, as in most countries nowadays, there is a pursuit for healthcare quality improvement and sustainability in public and private systems. Healthcare professionals' perceptions, knowledge and attitudes determine evidence-based practice (EBP), which remain uncertain among Brazilian practitioners. A standardised national instrument whose wide use will identify gaps and flaws in establishing an EBP could contribute to an effective resources allocation from health professionals willing to use an EBP.ObjectivesTo present a study protocol on the development and validation of an instrument to measure Brazilian healthcare professionals' behaviour, skills, self-efficacy, knowledge and attitudes towards EBP.MethodsThis is a validation study with Brazilian healthcare professionals to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire, including selection of domains and formulation of questions. Construct and content validity will be assess by a panel of experts, with data collection and analysis following a Delphi-like methodology. Further, a pilot survey will be accomplished with a representative sample of different healthcare professionals from all main Brazilian regions. An exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis will be conducted afterwards. The ratio of χ2 and df (χ2/df), comparative fit index, goodness of fit index and root mean square error of approximation will be used for assessing the model fit. In addition, the reliability of the instrument will be estimated by test-retest reproducibility and Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α).Ethics and disseminationThis study has received ethical approval from the Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty of the São Paulo State University (1.425.808). The use among a wide national sample is expected to promote an extensive view of evidence-based decision-making, identifying the knowledge gaps in this area. Study findings will be circulated to healthcare professionals and scientists in the field through the publication in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations.

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Assessing the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities of Public Health Professionals in Big City Governmental Health Departments.

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Assessing the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities of Public Health Professionals in Big City Governmental Health Departments.

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