Toward standardized, comparable public health systems data: a taxonomic description of essential public health work

The objective of this study is to identify taxonomy of task, knowledge and resources for documenting the work performed in local health departments (LHDs). Secondary data were collected from documents describing public health practice produced by organizations representing the public health community. A multi-step consensus-based method was used that included literature review, data extraction, expert opinion, focus group review and pilot testing. Terms and concepts were manually extracted from documents, consolidated, and evaluated for scope and sufficiency by researchers. An expert panel determined suitability of terms and a hierarchy for classifying them. This work was validated by practitioners and results pilot tested in 2 LHDs. The finalized taxonomy was applied to compare a national sample of 11 LHDs. Data were obtained from 1064 of 1267 (84%) of employees. Frequencies of tasks, knowledge, and resources constitute a profile of public health work. About 70% of ! the correlations between LHD pairs on tasks and knowledge were high (> 0.7) suggesting between department commonalities. On resources only 16% of correlations between LHD pairs were high, suggesting a source of performance variability. A taxonomy of public health work serves as a tool for comparative research and a framework for further development

Adaptando el currículo para atender a necesidades de profesionales de salud en un desastre : una propuesta para enfermeras brasileñas

Introdução: Educação e capacitação são os pilares da preparação para os desastres e melhores currículos e programas de treinamento são baseados em competências. Objetivo: Este artigo apresenta uma proposta para ser aplicada ao currículo de enfermagem no Brasil, baseada nas Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais e nas recomendações para a integração de habilidades e competências no currículo de graduação propostas pela Organização Mundial da Saúde. Resultados: Foi realizada uma comparação de referenciais de competências para indicar as competências específicas essenciais para enfermeiras brasileiras. Níveis de proficiência foram indicados para o estabelecimento de objetivos educacionais e experiências de aprendizado e instrumentos de avaliação recomendados da literatura. Conclusões: As competências constituem o início da discussão que deverá ocorrer em cada escola de enfermagem para que todas as enfermeiras brasileiras estejam preparadas para o caso de um desastre ocorrer.Introduction: Education and training are the cornerstones of disaster preparedness and best curricula and training programs are competency-based. Objective: This paper presents a proposal to be applied in nursing curricula in Brazil, based on the National Curriculum Guidelines and the recommendations for integrating skills and competencies into undergraduate curricula proposed by the World Health Organization. Results: Comparison of competencies sets was conducted to indicate the specific competencies to be included as essential for Brazilian nurses. Levels of proficiency were indicated for the establishment of learning objectives and learning experiences and evaluation tools recommended from the literature. Conclusions: The competencies provided are the beginning of the discussion that will have to take place in every nursing school, if all Brazilian nurses are to graduate ready to participate should a disaster occur.Introducción: Educación y capacidad son los pilares de la preparación para los desastres y mejores currículos y programas de entrenamiento son basados en competencias. Objetivo: Este artículo presenta una propuesta para ser aplicada al currículo de enfermería en Brasil, basada en las Directrices Curriculares Nacionales y en las recomendaciones para la integración de habilidades y competencias en el currículo de grado propuestas por la Organización Mundial de la Salud. Resultados: Se realizó una comparación de referenciales de competencias para indicar aquellas específicas esenciales para enfermeras brasileñas. Niveles de competencia fueran indicados para el establecimiento de objetivos educacionales e experiencias de aprendizaje e instrumentos de evaluación recomendados por la literatura. Conclusiones: Las competencias constituyen el inicio de la discusión que deberá ocurrir en cada escuela de enfermería para que todas las enfermeras brasileñas estén preparadas para el caso de un desastre ocurrir

Adaptando o currículo para atender a necessidades de profissionais de saúde em um desastre: uma proposta para enfermeiras brasileiras

Introdução: Educação e capacitação são os pilares da preparação para os desastres e melhores currículos e programas de treinamento são baseados em competências.Objetivo: Este artigo apresenta uma proposta para ser aplicada ao currículo de enfermagem no Brasil, baseada nas Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais e nas recomendações para a integração de habilidades e competências no currículo de graduação propostas pela Organização Mundial da Saúde.Resultados: Foi realizada uma comparação de referenciais de competências para indicar as competências específicas essenciais para enfermeiras brasileiras. Níveis de proficiência foram indicados para o estabelecimento de objetivos educacionais e experiências de aprendizado e instrumentos de avaliação recomendados da literatura.Conclusões: As competências constituem o início da discussão que deverá ocorrer em cada escola de enfermagem para que todas as enfermeiras brasileiras estejam preparadas para o caso de um desastre ocorrer.Palavras-chave: Educação baseada em competências. Educação em desastres. Educação em enfermagem, currículo

Modernizing State Public Health Enabling Statutes to Reflect the Mission and Essential Services of Public Health

It is unclear whether efforts of the past decade to modernize state public health statutes have succeeded in codifying into state law the currently understood mission and essential services of public health. Although many state health agencies may be operating in a manner consistent with these principles, their codification in state law is crucial for the sustainability of agency efforts in disease prevention and health promotion. This research examines the 50 state public health enabling statutes for their correspondence with the 6 mission statements and the 10 essential services of public health described in Public Health in America. This analysis finds that modernization efforts have not been universally effective in ensuring that the legislative basis of public health is commensurate with the accepted scope of authority necessary to support health agency performance. Given current imperatives for law modernization in public health, this analysis highlights the importance of model statutory language in facilitating the codification of the mission and essential services of public health in state law. As a result, this research provides the practice community with a research base to facilitate statutory reform and develops a framework for future scholarship on the role of law as a determinant of the public’s health

Assessing community disaster resilience using a balanced scorecard: lessons learnt from three Australian communities

The Australian Journal of Emergency Management by AIDR is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.In 2012, the Torrens Resilience Institute (TRI) developed a balanced Scorecard for communities to assess their disaster resilience using an all-hazards approach. The Scorecard assesses four components of community resilience: connectedness, risk and vulnerability, procedures that support disaster planning, response and recovery (PRR), and PRR resources. The recommended process for completing the Scorecard is for the community to form a representative working group and meet three times over a few weeks to discuss and score the items. From June 2014 to June 2015, the TRI evaluated the Scorecard. Prospective local councils received information about the Scorecard via circulars from local government associations. Sixteen councils expressed interest and three of these implemented the Scorecard. This paper reports on the findings from three communities that implemented the Scorecard

Creation of a new health department in Washington State: Organizational and political forces.

The division of the executive branch of government into agencies, departments, boards and commissions is not static: over the course of time in any one state, units are expanded, contracted, created and eliminated. In 1989, Washington state re-established a Cabinet-level Department of Health. The set of decisions made by the Washington legislature and governor included certain programs in the new Department, and excluded others. This study examines these decisions. It combines concepts from organizational theory and political science in a framework which better explains the decisions made than either viewpoint taken alone. This case study used an iterative process combining literature review from both fields and interviews with participants in the Washington State process. No initial theoretical framework or testable hypothesis was advanced. Initial review of several areas of political science and management literature suggested possible areas for exploration. Informants were selected from the executive and legislative branches of government, and from interested associations and local governments. Conceptual perspectives of contingency theory, transaction costs, agenda setting, interest groups and controlling bureaucracy were found to be of value. These were combined into a three stage process model which describes the movement from the emergence of an idea for reorganization, through boundary setting on the potential components, to the legislative action resulting in a redesigned agency. At each stage, different actors dominate the process, and the forces driving decisions shift. This combined model encourages more deliberate and complex analysis of state reorganizations. While providing a useful framework for practitioners engaged in reorganizations, the model should also be subjected to testing in multiple instances to identify gaps and strengthen its usefulness.Dr.P.H.Health PolicyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/104575/1/9532446.pdfDescription of 9532446.pdf : Restricted to UM users only

The Public HealthWorkforce,2006: New Challenges

Efforts to develop the public health workforce since 2001 have benefited from increased funding resulting from concerns over terrorism and other public health threats. This largesse has been accompanied by the need for greater accountability for results. The size, composition, and distribution of the public health workforce have long been policy concerns. Production and retention of public health workers remain important issues,although new dimensions of readiness are also taking center stage. We offer here policy recommendations in the areas of assessing the public health workforce and its needs,organizing development efforts around essential competencies for public health practice,credentialing workers, and accrediting agencies. [Health Affairs 25, no. 4 (2006): 923–933; 10.1377/hlthaff.25.4.923]https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.25.4.92