| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
LETTER |
John P. Allegrante is with the National Center for Health Education, Teachers College, and the Division of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY. At the time of the study, Robert W. Moon was with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Helena. M. Elaine Auld is with the Society for Public Health Education, Washington, DC. Kristine M. Gebbie is with the Center for Health Policy, Columbia University School of Nursing, New York, NY.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to John P. Allegrante, PhD, National Center for Health Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027 (e-mail: jpa1{at}columbia.edu).
We thank Ellery for her comments on our article. Nineteen of the 25 members of our consensus panel were currently-employed public health educators in local, state, and federal health agencies. We agree that the issue of responsibility for the continuing education needs of health educators is an important one. As we pointed out, it will require both cooperation and investments on the part of professional associations, universities, government, and foundations.
We certainly agree that continuing education will require "multiple modes of delivery" and emerging technologies to reach public health professionals with the new understandings we identified. Moreover, while the evidence base for health education has matured significantly in the last 30 years, Ellery is correct to point out that much work remains to be done.
The results of our consensus panel, along with others,1,2 constitute only an important first step. We sought to bring attention to a critical issue in strengthening the public health infrastructure.3 There has already been significant dialogue and action.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiated and continues to support the Strategic Plan for the Development of the Public Health Workforce, including the continuing education needs of all public health professionals. Representatives of health education have been actively involved since the inception of this plan. Several health education organizations jointly have developed a 15-month long Public Health Education Leadership Institute to enhance leadership capacity to perform public health essential services.4
The Society for Public Health Education and the Association for the Advancement of Health Education are also engaged in joint efforts to review accreditation of health education professional preparation programs to ensure that both entry-level and advanced practice address the competencies and skills that our panel found to be critical. Finally, the Coalition of National Health Education Organizations has catalyzed multisector involvement to address the continuing education needs of the profession.5
The quality assurance movement in public health will have an important impact on state and federal employment policies in hiring health educators. Despite the progress we have made in credentialing, many issues will continue to be debated in the coming decade, including the question of continuing education.6,7 We would like nothing more than to see Ellery and others who understand the importance of maintaining the best possible public health workforce take up the work of looking beyond experts and content to better identify specific training needs and to devise innovative, responsive continuing education opportunities.
References
1.
Gebbie KM, Hwang I. Preparing currently employed public health nurses for changes in the health system. Am J Public Health. 2000;90:716–721.
2. Boedigheimer SF, Gebbie KM. Currently employed public health administrators: are they prepared? J Public Health Manage Pract. 2001;7:30–6.
3.
Gebbie KM. The public health workforce: key to public health infrastructure. Am J Public Health. 1999;89:660–1.
4. Wright K, Hann N, McLeroy K, et al. Health education leadership development: a conceptual model and competency framework. Health Promot Pract. In press.
5. Coalition of National Health Education Organizations. The Health Education Profession in the Twenty-First Century: Progress Report 1995–2001. Kent, Ohio: American School Health Association; 2001.
6. Livingood WC, Auld ME. The credentialing of a population-based health profession: lessons learned from health education certification. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2001;7:38–45.[Medline]
7. Allegrante JP, Auld ME, Butterfoss FD, Livingood C. La certification en education pour la santé: son impact sur l'évolution de la profession aux États-Unis [Credentialing and its impact on the evolution of the profession of health education in the United States]. La Santé de l'Homme. 2001 May-June:46–53.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
