The Role of the U.S. Public Health Learning Network in Strengthening the Current and Future Public Health Workforce

摘要

The public health workforce plays a critical role in ensuring the health and well-being of our communities, yet lack of formal training in public health and high turnover impede the ability of the workforce to do its job. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) estimates that only 20% of the nation's public health workforce has the formal education and training necessary to do their jobs effectively (HRSA, 2004, as cited in Kennedy & Baker, 2005). When surveyed as part of the Association of State and Territorial Health Official's Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS), 79% of respondents stated they were somewhat or very satisfied with their job, yet 42% were still planning to retire before 2020 or leave their organization within the next year (Sellers et al., 2015). Additionally, the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health estimates that 250,000 more public health workers will be needed by 2020 to maintain capacity (Association of Schools of Public Health, 2008). Established in 1999, the Public Health Training Centers (PHTC), funded by the HRSA, are partnerships between accredited public health degree programs and schools of public health, related academic institutions, public health agencies, and other community organizations. In 2014, the original PHTC model was updated by HRSA to the current regional model, which is composed of 10 regional PHTCs (one located in each U.S. Department of Health and Human Services region), 40 local performance sites, and the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training (Bigley, 2016; HRSA, 2014). Collectively, these entities are known as the Public Health Learning Network (PHLN).