Educating The Global Workforce For Public Health

Good quality management of the health system demands a critical mass of health professionals with sound technical knowledge. The education that produces a workforce of appropriate size and skills is often a challenge in the delivery of quality health services. Incidentally, health professionals’ education has not kept pace with the new emerging challenges. Recent globalization of health has further led to international migration of health professionals, thereby leading to cross-border recognition of health workers with an appropriate skill-mix, knowledge, and competence. The Lancet Commission Report of 2010 highlighted the need to develop a common strategy at a global level for postgraduate medical, nursing, and public health education that reaches beyond the confines of national borders and the silos of individual professions. This vision would require a series of instructional and institutional reforms, which should be guided by two proposed outcomes: transformative learning and interdependence in education. The purpose of this Research Topic is to increase the shared understanding of the current status of the education of the health workforce around the globe, particularly those working in the public health sector. With this foundation, further research and evaluation studies can then be done with a perspective that addresses global workforce issues impacting access, prevention, and care.

There is growing evidence from developed and developing countries that community-based approaches are effective in improving the health of individuals and populations. This is especially true when the social determinants of health are considered in the design of the community-based approach. With an aging population and an emphasis on health promotion, the United States is increasingly focusing on community-based health and health care. Preventing disease and promoting health calls for a holistic approach to health interventions that rely more heavily upon interprofessional collaborations. However, the financial and structural design of health professional education remains siloed and largely focused on academic health centers for training. Despite these challenges, there are good examples of interprofessional, community-based programs and curricula for educating health professionals. In May 2014, members of the Institute of Medicine's Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education came together to substantively delve into issues affecting the scale-up and spread of health professional education in communities. Participants heard a wide variety of individual accounts from innovators about work they are undertaking and opportunities for education with communities. In presenting a variety of examples that range from student community service to computer modeling, the workshop aimed to stimulate discussions about how educators might better integrate education with practice in communities. Building Health Workforce Capacity Through Community-Based Health Professional Education summarizes the presentations and discussion of this event.

In concept and practice, public health casts a wide net, spanning assessment, intervention, and policy; education, prevention, and protection; public, private, and government entities. But key elements are often missing from the picture, including a clear understanding of public health and its goals by the general public, and specific public health education throughout the workforce. Preparing the Public Health Workforce responds to these and related challenges by elegantly summarizing the state of the field in an era of dwindling budgets, competing and overlapping services, and a shaky professional infrastructure. In keeping with public health goals set out by the CDC and other leading agencies, the author makes a real-world case for standardizing training, establishing best practices in the field, and coordinating public health systems with their healthcare counterparts. Theory, case examples, tools, and callout boxes highlight knowledge, preparation, and skills professionals need in addressing chronic issues and complex emergencies. Throughout, the emphasis is on greater competency and visibility for the profession, resulting in a more informed, healthier public. Featured in the coverage: Issues in defining the public health workforce. The state of public health education. Practicing and teaching public health: local, national, and international cases. Standardizing public health practice: benefits and challenges. Integrating public health and healthcare. The future of public health as seen from academia and the frontlines. Identifying urgent issues and providing cogent answers, Preparing the Public Health Workforce is a call to action for those involved in creating the next level of public health, including professors, practitioners, students, and administrators.

The World Health Organization defines the social determinants of health as "the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life." These forces and systems include economic policies, development agendas, cultural and social norms, social policies, and political systems. In an era of pronounced human migration, changing demographics, and growing financial gaps between rich and poor, a fundamental understanding of how the conditions and circumstances in which individuals and populations exist affect mental and physical health is imperative. Educating health professionals about the social determinants of health generates awareness among those professionals about the potential root causes of ill health and the importance of addressing them in and with communities, contributing to more effective strategies for improving health and health care for underserved individuals, communities, and populations. Recently, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to develop a high-level framework for such health professional education. A Framework for Educating Health Professionals to Address the Social Determinants of Health also puts forth a conceptual model for the framework's use with the goal of helping stakeholder groups envision ways in which organizations, education, and communities can come together to address health inequalities.

Bioterrorism, drug-resistant disease, transmission of disease by global travel . . . there's no shortage of challenges facing America's public health officials. Men and women preparing to enter the field require state-of-the-art training to meet these increasing threats to the public health. But are the programs they rely on provide the high caliber professional training they require? Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? provides an overview of the past, present, and future of public health education, assessing its readiness to provide the training and education needed to prepare men and women to face 21st century challenges. Advocating an ecological approach to public health, the Institute of Medicine examines the role of public health schools and degree-granting programs, medical schools, nursing schools, and government agencies, as well as other institutions that foster public health education and leadership. Specific recommendations address the content of public health education, qualifications for faculty, availability of supervised practice, opportunities for cross-disciplinary research and education, cooperation with government agencies, and government funding for education. Eight areas of critical importance to public health education in the 21st century are examined in depth: informatics, genomics, communication, cultural competence, community-based participatory research, global health, policy and law, and public health ethics. The book also includes a discussion of the policy implications of its ecological framework.

The World Health Organization defines the social determinants of health as "the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life." These forces and systems include economic policies, development agendas, cultural and social norms, social policies, and political systems. In an era of pronounced human migration, changing demographics, and growing financial gaps between rich and poor, a fundamental understanding of how the conditions and circumstances in which individuals and populations exist affect mental and physical health is imperative. Educating health professionals about the social determinants of health generates awareness among those professionals about the potential root causes of ill health and the importance of addressing them in and with communities, contributing to more effective strategies for improving health and health care for underserved individuals, communities, and populations. Recently, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to develop a high-level framework for such health professional education. A Framework for Educating Health Professionals to Address the Social Determinants of Health also puts forth a conceptual model for the framework's use with the goal of helping stakeholder groups envision ways in which organizations, education, and communities can come together to address health inequalities.

Bioterrorism, drug-resistant disease, transmission of disease by global travel . . . there's no shortage of challenges facing America's public health officials. Men and women preparing to enter the field require state-of-the-art training to meet these increasing threats to the public health. But are the programs they rely on provide the high caliber professional training they require? Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? provides an overview of the past, present, and future of public health education, assessing its readiness to provide the training and education needed to prepare men and women to face 21st century challenges. Advocating an ecological approach to public health, the Institute of Medicine examines the role of public health schools and degree-granting programs, medical schools, nursing schools, and government agencies, as well as other institutions that foster public health education and leadership. Specific recommendations address the content of public health education, qualifications for faculty, availability of supervised practice, opportunities for cross-disciplinary research and education, cooperation with government agencies, and government funding for education. Eight areas of critical importance to public health education in the 21st century are examined in depth: informatics, genomics, communication, cultural competence, community-based participatory research, global health, policy and law, and public health ethics. The book also includes a discussion of the policy implications of its ecological framework.

In April 2015, the Institute of Medicine convened a public workshop to explore recent shifts in the health and health care industry and their implications for health professional education (HPE) and workforce learning. This study serves as a follow-up to the 2009 Lancet Commission report on health professions education for the 21st century and seeks to expand the report's messages beyond medicine, nursing, and public health. Envisioning the Future of Health Professional Education discusses opportunities for new platforms of communication and learning, continuous education of the health workforce, opportunities for team-based care and other types of collaborations, and social accountability of the health professions. This study explores the implications that shifts in health, policy, and the health care industry could have on HPE and workforce learning, identifies learning platforms that could facilitate effective knowledge transfer with improved quality and efficiency, and discusses opportunities for building a global health workforce that understands the role of culture and health literacy in perceptions and approaches to health and disease.