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Advancing the public health workforce to achieve organizational excellence
Council on Linkages Meeting Summary - July 2017

Related Categories: Council on Linkages, Workforce Development

Topic: Council on Linkages, Workforce Development

Date: 7/30/2017

 
 
Council on Linkages Meeting Summary
 
July 2017
 
 
  
The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council on Linkages) held its second meeting of 2017 on July 17th. More than 70 Council on Linkages members and friends participated in this virtual meeting, discussing current Council on Linkages initiatives and plans for the future.
 
  
 
Council on Linkages Adopts Preventive Medicine Physician Licensure Consensus Statement
  
Following discussion about preventive medicine physician licensure during the April and July 2017 Council on Linkages meetings, the Council on Linkages has adopted a consensus statement affirming the critical role of preventive medicine physicians in the practice of population health. The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM), a Council on Linkages member, raised the issue of preventive medicine physician licensure with the Council on Linkages earlier this year and worked with Council on Linkages leadership and staff to draft a consensus statement for consideration by the Council on Linkages. ACPM's Executive Director, Mike Barry, CAE, joined this meeting to share the draft consensus statement, discuss issues preventive medicine physicians can face in terms of licensure, and ask for Council on Linkages support. Following a discussion, the Council on Linkages adopted the consensus statement, offering support for efforts to assure that preventive medicine physicians can be licensed in all states based on the definition of clinical medicine used by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
 
  
 
Trust for America's Health Joins Council on Linkages to Discuss Support for the Governmental Public Health Workforce
  
The Council on Linkages' Strategic Directions, 2016-2020 emphasizes the need to demonstrate the value of public health. As the environment in which public health operates evolves, it is important to consider potential challenges in this new environment and implications for the governmental public health workforce, as well as new strategies to enhance public health and communicate the value that public health offers. John Auerbach, MBA, President and CEO of Trust for America's Health, joined the Council on Linkages for this meeting to lead a discussion about the current public health environment, highlighting a shrinking and aging workforce, changing composition of the workforce and the work, funding uncertainty and a disconnect between causes of death and funding allocations, and actions to begin addressing these concerns. Download the meeting slides to learn more.
 
  
 
Council on Linkages Members Share Competency Development and Implementation Efforts
  
As with the April 2017 meeting, this meeting again featured presentations from Council on Linkages members sharing how their organizations' activities align with the Council on Linkages' Strategic Directions, this time with the focus being on competency development and implementation efforts. The Association of Public Health Laboratories discussed its work to integrate the Competency Guidelines for Public Health Laboratory Professionals into laboratory workforce practices, and the Quad Council Coalition of Public Health Nursing Organizations shared an update on revisions to the Quad Council Public Health Nursing Core Competencies. Both of these initiatives draw on the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) and related resources and align with an objective within the Strategic Directions focused on supporting the development of a diverse, highly skilled, and motivated public health workforce with the competence and tools to succeed. Highlighting individual member organizations' contributions toward the Strategic Directions and celebrating the collective impact of the Council on Linkages will continue to be a focus for the Council on Linkages throughout the year.
 
  
 
In Other Business... 
 
  • Bobbie Erlwein, MPH, Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, and Kate Glynn, DVM, MPVM, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provided an update on CDC's priorities related to Council on Linkages activities and workforce development.
  • A new tool for prioritizing competencies using a modified version of the Core Competencies was released in June 2017, and a webinar featuring this tool and an example of how one health department implemented it was attended by nearly 200 participants. Both the tool and the archive of the webinar are available through the Council on Linkages website.
  • Updated usage data show that the Core Competencies have been accessed nearly 137,000 times, and resources and tools have been accessed an additional 261,300 times, through the Council on Linkages website since the release of the 2014 version. In addition, Council on Linkages staff responded to more than 50 technical assistance requests between July 2016 and June 2017, serving nearly 40 organizations in 23 states, Guam, and Nepal. Visuals of these and other key Core Competencies data are available in the meeting materials.
  • The Academic Health Department (AHD) Learning Community has begun a new activity, the creation of a staged model of AHD development, to better articulate the development of AHD partnerships. A draft of this model has been produced and will be shared for public comment.
  • The AHD Learning Community's most recent meeting in May 2017 highlighted the newly formed AHD partnership between the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Chicago Department of Health, and its next meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, from 2-3pm ET and will feature the AHD partnerships of East Tennessee State University's College of Public Health.
  • Participation in both the AHD Learning Community and the AHD Mentorship Program continues to grow, with approximately 700 members participating in the community and 15 mentor/mentee matches. In addition, the Ask the AHD Expert series published its second post in June 2017, and webpages related to the Learning Community have been accessed nearly 40,000 times since its launch in 2011.
  • As follow-up to the announcement of the upcoming election for Council on Linkages Chair, Council on Linkages staff will send all Council on Linkages members a call for nominations. The election will be conducted by email.
  • The next meeting of the Council on Linkages will be held on Monday, October 2nd from 2-4pm ET and will occur virtually. The final meeting of 2017 is scheduled for Tuesday, December 12th from 1-3pm ET.
 
Additional information about the meeting, including the agenda and other meeting materials, is available on the meeting webpage.
 

Activities of the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice are supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Questions and comments may be emailed to Academic/Practice Linkages Assistant Director Kathleen Amos at [email protected].

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Council on Linkages Meeting Summary - July 2017