Prevention Specialists Gain Hands-On Experience in 3-Year Program

Public Health Prevention Service (PHPS) is a unique 3-year training and service program offered through CDC's Office of Workforce and Career Development . Approximately 25 public health professionals enter PHPS each year. The PHPS helps them build skills in program planning, implementation, and evaluation. High-quality, well-defined assignments allow the prevention specialists to become involved with direct, hands-on public health work in local and state health agencies as well as around the globe.

During the first year, prevention specialists complete two 6-month rotations at a CDC facility in a program area such as HIV/AIDS prevention, nutrition and physical activity, and reproductive health. One participant likens PHPS to a post-doctoral program for public health professionals. Participants are exposed to diverse areas of public health practice, work with leading professionals in the field, and have the opportunity to develop critical research, writing, evaluation and presentation skills under a structured training program

Hands-On Experience

After one year, the prevention specialists are assigned to a project or program in the field. Most of these long-term assignments are in state or local health agencies where the prevention specialists receive substantial supervision and mentoring, as well as responsibility for meaningful, multidisciplinary projects that require interaction with public and private partners. Some assignments have included:

• City of St. Louis Health Department, where a Prevention Specialist chaired a regional community health advisory board, coordinated implementation of comprehensive community STD strategic goals and plan, and developed a tool to evaluate programs' success.

• Rhode Island Department of Health, where a Prevention Specialist coordinated the Diabetes Prevention Collaborative, which will author a white paper encouraging the development of prevention collaboratives and the integration of such collaboratives with disease-management collaboratives.

• Morehouse School of Medicine/Fulton County Health Department, where a Prevention Specialist is coordinating, planning, and implementing a culturally appropriate small media campaign to highlight CDC's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program and its work with underserved populations in Fulton County, Georgia.

J. Todd Mercer, PHPS class of 1997, on a STOP assignment.

Prevention specialists also have the opportunity to participate in international assignments that provide practical experience in global health through CDC programs such as the Global AIDS Program (GAP) and STOP Transmission of Polio (STOP).

Throughout their three years in PHPS, prevention specialists receive competency-based training that focuses on public health program management and provides experience in program planning, implementation, and evaluation. In addition to on-the-job training, PHPS provides formal instruction in program management, epidemiology, surveillance, emergency response, and program evaluation. Prevention specialists participate in a variety of activities, such as seminars, evaluation projects, Web-based training, temporary duty assignments, and conferences, which are designed to teach essential public health program management skills.

After completing the program, the majority of PHPS graduates work in public health. As of October 2007, when the 2004 class graduated:

• 63 percent of graduates were employed in public health, at the federal, state, and local levels.

• 14 percent of graduates are employed by public health associations, or by private for-profit and nonprofit organizations.

Additional Resources

• General information about the Public Health Prevention Service program and application process

• Health agency information for organizations that could benefit from a trained prevention specialist