Evaluation Results of the CDC/ASPH Institute for HIV Prevention Leadership

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this research was to evaluate changes over time in the capacity of participants of the CDC/ASPH Institute for HIV Prevention Leadership (Institute), a capacity-building program for HIV prevention program managers in minority-based, community-based organizations. Capacity was defined as the application of new skills and knowledge to participants' jobs and confidence in using those new skills and knowledge to strategically manage and apply "best practices" to their HIV prevention activities.

METHODS

This is a longitudinal study involving measuring scholar capacity at three points in time: pre-Institute, post-Institute, and 6 months' post-Institute. Only responses from participants who completed all three surveys are included in this final analysis of the data (N = 94).

RESULTS

Results indicate that participants from 3 years of the Institute (2002-2004) increased their capacity in HIV prevention programming and strategic planning and management. Significant changes were seen in the frequency and self-efficacy with which participants conduct several HIV prevention programming activities. Participants also reported conducting strategic planning activities at more appropriate intervals and were significantly more confident in conducting these activities.

CONCLUSION

The Institute has positively and significantly increased the capacity of participants to conduct more effective HIV prevention programs on a national level.

The globalization of emergency medicine and its importance for public health

Emergency medicine (EM) is a global discipline that provides secondary disease prevention and is also a tool for primary prevention. It is a horizontally integrated system of emergency care consisting of access to EM care; provision of EM care in the community and during transportation of patients; and provision of care at the receiving facility or hospital emergency department. EM can offer many tools to improve public health. These tools include primary disease prevention; interventions for addressing substance abuse and interpersonal violence; education about safety practices; epidemiological surveillance; enrolment of patients in clinical research trials focusing on acute interventions; education and clinical training of health-care providers; and participation in local and regional responses to natural and man-made disasters. Public health advocates and health policy-makers can benefit from the opportunities of EM and can help overcome its challenges. Advocating the establishment and recognition of the specialty of EM worldwide can result in benefits for health-care education, help in incorporating the full scope of EM care into the system of public health, and expand the capabilities of EM for primary and secondary prevention for the benefit of the health of the public.

[Specificity of the training of modern manager for the system of Ministry of Health of Ukraine]

The article devotes to the analyze of some questions of the training of managers for the system of Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

Using Principles of Community-based Participatory Research to Enhance Health Data Skills Among Local Public Health Community Partners

In a prior statewide health disparities assessment, local community public health and social service professionals indicated a need for technical capacity growth in order to understand and effectively utilize health data. Using a community-based participatory research approach in addressing this need, health data training was provided to 26 individuals with the primary goals being to provide capacity to identify health disparities that result in higher morbidity and mortality, and to provide the skills needed to access, interpret, and utilize health data. Satisfaction surveys showed that an overwhelming majority of participants were extremely pleased with the training. Follow-up telephone interviews (100% response rate) conducted 2 months after the training indicated positive results, with participants discussing how they felt empowered to find, interpret, and use data as a result of the training. Results of a 6-month follow-up questionnaire (54% response rate) further supported the program's desired outcome to expand participants' knowledge and use of health data. This pilot project illustrated how utilizing a community-level partnership approach to program development not only enhances the utilization of such programs but also helps sustain participants' knowledge and skills.

The crucible of public health practice: major trends shaping the design of the Management Academy for Public Health

Public health leaders and managers need new leadership and management skills as well as greater entrepreneurial acumen to respond effectively to broad demographic, socioeconomic, and political trends reshaping public health. This article asserts that the need for such training and skills was the impetus for the conceptualization, design, and launch of the Management Academy for Public Health--an innovative executive education program jointly offered by the schools of business and public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Management Academy for Public Health: program design and critical success factors

The Management Academy for Public Health is a team-based training program jointly offered by the School of Public Health and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This 9-month program teaches public health managers how to better manage people, information, and finances. Participants learn how to work in teams with community partners, and how to think and behave as social entrepreneurs. To practice and blend their new skills, teams develop a business plan that addresses a local public health issue. This article describes the program and explains the findings of the process evaluation, which has examined how best to structure and deploy a team-based method to create more effective, more entrepreneurial public health managers. Findings indicate that recruitment and retention are strong, program elements are relevant to learners' needs, and learners are satisfied with and value the program. Several specific benefits of the program model are identified, as well as several elements that support business plan success and skills' application on the job. On the basis of these findings, four success factors critical for developing similar programs are identified.

The public health workforce, 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.

Specialist capacity in public health: are we hitting the target?

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to audit specialist public health capacity in one strategic health authority (SHA), and to compare capacity with the targets suggested by the Faculty of Public Health (FPH).

METHODS

A census of all public health specialists and specialists in training, working within the geographical boundary of one SHA, was performed in late 2004. The number of whole-time-equivalent (WTE) public health specialists was quantified using a variety of methods, including the public health network database, informal networks, existing written reports, personal knowledge and telephone interviews. The number of specialists was compared with the targets suggested by the FPH and with other regions.

RESULTS

There were 12 WTE public health specialists per million population in the SHA, and the FPH's target was 25 WTE per million population. There was a particular shortage of specialists in academic public health.

CONCLUSIONS

There was a marked shortfall in specialist public health capacity in the SHA compared with the FPH's targets. Comparisons with the FPH's targets were difficult; the FPA used WTE as the metric, while the local public health network database provided information in terms of numbers of specialists and WTE data were time consuming to obtain. Comparisons with other regions were of limited use as the workforce data were not comparable. The FPH's targets were found to have little resonance outside the world of specialist public health, and so are unlikely to be helpful in securing local investment in specialist public health capacity. The service needs to be marketed, and new ways of inter-organizational and collaborative working and of expanding the wider public health workforce need to be examined in order to deliver effective public health.

2005 National Profile of Local Health Departments

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) is the national organization representing local health departments. NACCHO supports efforts that protect and improve the health of all people and all communities by promoting national policy, developing resources and programs, seeking health equity, and supporting effective local public health practice and systems.

Addressing the Problem of Pet Overpopulation

Pet overpopulation is a problem for humans not only because of the increased rabies exposure risk but also because it puts a strain on animal control agencies, which must care for, house, and often euthanize the unwanted animals. New Hanover County, North Carolina, Animal Control Services saw the need to control this problem and developed a plan to diminish the number of unwanted companion animals in its community. With the help of training through the UNC Management Academy for Public Health, they created a successful business plan to build an on-site spay/neuter facility. The facility began operations in 2004. As of January 31, 2006, a total of 1,108 surgeries had been completed in the new facility, with no added cost to taxpayers. The facility has been a success for Animal Control Services, the Health Department, and the community as a whole.

A Sustainable Behavioral Health Program Integrated With Public Health Primary Care

The need for behavioral healthcare for the poor and indigent is well documented in rural North Carolina, and integrated behavioral healthcare--that is, mental health screening and treatment offered as part of primary care services--has proven a very effective and efficient method to improve patients' health. In 2000, the Buncombe County Health Center (BCHC) began a grant-funded program treating depressed patients in its public health clinics and school health programs. The Health Center used the opportunity to send a team to the Management Academy for Public Health to learn business principles that could be applied to the challenge of sustaining this program as part of its ongoing public health service delivery for the county. Using their business plan from the Management Academy, the BCHC sought funding from various stakeholders, and, through their support, was able to institute a fully integrated behavioral health program in 2004. The BCHC has now joined forces with other partners in the state to address statewide policy changes in support of such programs. These efforts are an example of how a community health center can apply entrepreneurial thinking and strategic business planning to improve healthcare and effect wide-ranging change.

Creating the Management Academy for Public Health

True collaboration among large federal agencies is rare, as is that among large and influential national foundations. The collaboration between two major government health agencies (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration) and three major health foundations (the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the CDC Foundation) to create the Management Academy for Public Health is unprecedented in public health over the past quarter century. We attribute this success to the unique combination of a strong foundation of relationships between the partners and a commitment to generative dialogue throughout the design and implementation of the program. The success and sustainability of the Academy derive directly from these critical success factors, serving as an exemplary model for future collaborative endeavors.

Evaluating the Impact of the Management Academy for Public Health

The Management Academy for Public Health is a management development program with the goals of helping public health managers learn to manage people, data, and finance, to think and plan like entrepreneurs, and to strengthen public health organizations. Managers enroll as teams and develop business plans in the Academy's extensive project-based learning component. Extensive internal and external evaluation shows that the program improves managers' knowledge, skills, and confidence in key curriculum areas; that participants apply many of the skills in their jobs; that many of the business plans receive funding, resulting in new public health programs; that the training experience helped agencies respond and plan after September 11, 2001; and that many participants report beginning to think more like entrepreneurs through activities like teaming, partnering, innovating, negotiating, finding funds, and generating revenue. The program demonstrates that robust training including extensive work-based project work with coaching can help public health managers gain many skills needed for the drive to "reinvent" government.

The Management Academy for Public Health

In the late 1990s, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) was faced with the challenges of a workforce that was not prepared in public health; the impending loss of significant agency expertise, leadership, and institutional knowledge through retirement; the lack of available and accessible training; and continuing state budget cuts. Preparedness for bioterrorism and other public health emergencies was also of concern, a need made more urgent after 2001. To respond to current and emerging public health challenges, the SCDHEC had to have a workforce with the knowledge and skills necessary for the delivery of essential public health services. To address these challenges, the department partnered with the University of North Carolina in the pilot of the Management Academy for Public Health. The Management Academy is now integrated into the South Carolina workforce development strategy, and 199 staff members and 22 community partners have graduated from the program. Along with increased knowledge, skills, and abilities of individual staff and increased organizational and community capacity, a significant result of South Carolina's experience with the Management Academy for Public Health is the development of a training program for emergency preparedness modeled on the Management Academy. This highly successful program illustrates the replicability of the Management Academy model.

Developing a Web-based Data Mining Application to Impact Community Health Improvement Initiatives

This article describes how a team from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Virginia Center for Healthy Communities (VCHC) attended the UNC Management Academy for Public Health to learn skills to address Virginia's commitment to using technology to improve the public's health. After creating a business plan for a food-safety information Web site, team members used that experience as well as Management Academy training in information technology, the management of data and finances, and strategic partnering to create a comprehensive tool with which to place customizable population data in the hands of anyone interested in pursuing population health improvement. The Virginia Atlas of Community Health, launched through the VCHC in 2003, places clear, compelling data in the hands of those who can influence decisions at the local level and create the most impact for health. Since the program's inception, more than 2,000 individuals have registered as ongoing users of the Virginia Atlas. Initially funded by a Turning Point grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the program is sustained through a series of smaller grants and funding from the VDH.

The UNC Management Academy for Public Health

The University of North Carolina Management Academy for Public Health is a unique training program that combines a business education with a public health focus, to enhance the performance of individual public health managers and improve organizational strength throughout governmental public health. This article considers the implications of decisions made in creating this program, which, after initial funding through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation, is now self-sustaining through participant fees. It details the principles behind the program's design, curriculum, evaluation, and sustainability strategies; presents results of the ongoing partnership; and draws conclusions about the program's future ability to meet a national need for public health management training.