GENERAL EXAMPLES OF COMPETENCIES RELATED TO IDENTIFIED ESSENTIAL
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES
(From: The Public Health Workforce: An Agenda For The 21st
Century)
Essential Public Health Services :
Monitor health status to identify community health problems.
Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards
in the community.
Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
Mobilize community partnerships to define and solve health
problems.
Develop policies and plans that support individual and community
health efforts.
Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure
safety.
Link people to needed personal health services and assure the
provision of health care when otherwise unavailable.
Assure a competent public health and personal health care workforce.
Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal
and population-based health services.
Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health
problems.
Associated competency areas and related knowledge and skills:
Analytic
Skills proficiency to
Define a problem
Determine appropriate use of data and statistical methods for
identifying problems and planning, resolving, and implementing resolutions
Select and define variables relevant to defined public health
problems
Evaluate the integrity and comparability of data and identify
gaps in data sources
Make relevant inferences from data
Use data to illuminate ethical, political, scientific, economic,
and overall public health issues
Conduct cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, and cost-utility
analysis
Communication
Skills proficiency to
Communicate effectively both in writing and in speaking (unless
a handicap precludes one of these forms of communication)
Accurately and effectively present demographic, statistical,
programmatic, and scientific information for professional and lay audiences
Solicit input from individuals and organizations
Advocate for public health programs and resources
Lead and participate in groups to address specific issues
Use the media to communicate public health information
Facilitate interview (including cultural competence) and qualitative
survey methods
Utilize public relations methods and techniques
Engage in social marketing activities, including activities
that attempt to persuade specific target audiences to adopt an idea, practice,
or product through a variety of approaches and channels of communication in
an integrated, planned fashion.
Coordinate with existing network of consultants and technical
assistance and community-based assets to collect and analyze community health
data
Establish ties with community partners such as community based
organizations, businesses, managed care organizations and other health care
providers, school health clinics, other government agencies, occupational safety
offices in industry, volunteer and nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups,
community groups, hospitals, physicians, health insurers, faith and church
groups, and local pharmacies
Policy and Developmental/Program Planning
Knowledge of
Relevant legal and regulatory information
Skills proficiency to
Collect and summarize data relevant to an issue
State policy options
Articulate the health, fiscal, administrative, legal, social,
and political implications of each policy option
State the feasibility and expected outcomes of each policy
option
Utilize current techniques in decision analysis
Write a clear and concise policy statement
Develop a plan to implement the policy, including goals, outcome
and process objectives, and implementation steps
Translate policy into organizational plans, structures, and
programs
Identify public health laws, regulations, and policies related
to specific programs
Develop mechanisms to monitor and evaluate programs for their
effectiveness and quality
Utilize and integrate strategic planning processes, including
assessment methods and modeling when developing policies or community health
plans
Public Health Program Administration
Knowledge of
Program operations and administration of public and private
agencies within a community
Legal and political factors affecting program change
Financial Planning and Management
Skills proficiency to
Develop and present a budget
Manage programs within budgetary constraints
Develop strategies for determining budget priorities
Monitor program performance
Prepare proposals for funding from external sources
Apply basic human relations skills to the management of organizations
and the resolution of conflicts
Manage personnel
Surveillance and Data Management
Skills proficiency to
Apply risk assessment and risk communication methods and techniques
Use public health software packages such as Epi-Info to track,
analyze, and present findings of community health problems
Design and operate a surveillance system
Develop and administer survey instruments
Apply vital statistics
Use computer and information technology applications
Describe problems in terms of time (persistence), magnitude
or severity (scope), dispersion or location (place), and co-occurrence or co-morbidity
Identify and apply existing sources of data
Make relevant inferences from data
Prepare and interpret data from vital statistics, census, surveys,
service utilization, and other relevant special reports
Basic Public Health Sciences
Knowledge of
Research methods in all basic public health sciences
Environmental health issues and environmental morbidity factors
Study design, including outbreak or cluster investigation
Risk assessment and health risk assessment methodologies
Basic research designs used in public health
Skills proficiency to
Define, assess, and understand the health status of populations,
determinants of health and illness, factors contributing to health promotion
and disease prevention, and factors influencing the use of health services
Apply the basic public health sciences, including behavioral
and social sciences, biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental public health,
injury prevention, and chronic and infectious diseases
Utilize risk assessments (i.e., identifying hazardous exposure
and health effects)
Apply laboratory science skills
Identify the scientific underpinnings and ascertain strength
of evidence from literature, including effectiveness of interventions
Define, assess, and understand the health status of populations,
determinants of health and illness, factors contributing to health promotion
and disease prevention, and factors influencing the use of health services
Public Health Information and Communications
Knowledge of
Different theories of education and learning
Psychosocial and behavioral theories (e.g., health belief model)
Skills proficiency to
Translate information and communicate to different target audiences
Cultural
Knowledge of
Dynamic forces contributing to cultural diversity
Skills proficiency to
Interact sensitively, effectively, and professionally with
persons from diverse cultural, socioeconomic, educational, and professional
backgrounds and with persons of all ages and lifestyle preferences
Identify the role of cultural, social, and behavioral factors
in determining disease, disease prevention, health promoting behavior, and
medical service organization and delivery
Develop and adapt approaches to problems that take cultural
differences into account
Program Operations Guidelines for STD Prevention
