Regional Training Needs Assessment: A First Look at High-Priority Training Needs Across the United States by Region.

Context: Although core scientific skills remain a priority to public health, preventing and responding to today's leading causes of death require the workforce to build additional strategic skills to impact the social, community-based, and economic determinants of health. The 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey allows novel regional analysis of training needs, both individually and across 8 strategic skill domains.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to describe the training needs of public health staff nationally, across the 10 Department of Health and Human Services Regions.

A Review of Public Health Training Needs Assessment Approaches: Opportunities to Move Forward.

Context: Assessing training needs of the public health workforce is crucial for creating professional development opportunities to improve knowledge, competence, and effectiveness of this workforce.

Dissemination: Regional Public Health Training Centers (RPHTCs) assess workforce training needs and deliver training based on identified needs. To determine training priorities, several needs assessment surveys have been administered by RPHTCs and national public health member organizations.

Achieving Public Health Standards and Increasing Accreditation Readiness: Findings From the National Public Health Improvement Initiative.

Objectives: During 2010-2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention implemented the National Public Health Improvement Initiative (NPHII) to assist 73 public health agencies in conducting activities to increase accreditation readiness, improve efficiency and effectiveness through quality improvement, and increase performance management capacity. A summative evaluation of NPHII was conducted to examine whether awardees met the initiative's objectives, including increasing readiness for accreditation.

Design: A nonexperimental, utilization-focused evaluation with a multistrand, sequential mixed-methods approach was conducted to monitor awardee accomplishments and activities.

Quality improvement coaching to build capacity within health departments: reflections and recommendations.

Context: Strengthening the Community of Practice for Public Health Improvement is a 2-year initiative that facilitates the exchange of best practices and builds capacity among the nation's health departments to become accredited and conduct quality improvement (QI). Launched as the Public Health Accreditation Board opened its doors to receive the first accreditation applications from health departments, the Community of Practice for Public Health Improvement is the next stage in the National Network of Public Health Institutes' efforts to nurture and expand a community of practice focused on accreditation and QI. A key component of the Community of Practice for Public Health Improvement is the QI Award Program, which provides small grants and distance-based QI coaching to state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments.

The quantitative story behind the quality improvement storyboards: a synthesis of quality improvement projects conducted by the multi-state learning collaborative.

Context: The Multi-State Learning Collaborative: Lead States in Public Health Quality Improvement (MLC) brought state and local health departments in 16 states together with public health system and national partners to prepare for national voluntary accreditation and to implement quality improvement (QI) practices.

Objective: The MLC has collected the single largest repository of qualitative public health QI data to date. A preliminary study was conducted to explore the potential merits of further mining data sets of this size and scope and examining them quantitatively.

Promoting quality improvement and achieving measurable change: the lead states initiative.

Along with the development of a national voluntary accreditation program for public health departments that holds quality improvement as its core goal, the application of quality improvement in public health has been gaining momentum. The 16 states participating in the Multi-State Learning Collaborative: Lead States in Public Health Quality Improvement (MLC) represent best practices in these activities. The MLC brings together partnerships in 16 US states to prepare for accreditation and implement quality-improvement practices.

Voluntary rapid human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing in jails.

Objectives: To provide human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) rapid testing to persons in jails, identify previously undiagnosed cases of HIV infection, and refer HIV-infected inmates to care, treatment, and prevention services.

Design: Four state health departments (Florida, Louisiana, New York, and Wisconsin) collaborated with jails to implement stand-alone voluntary rapid HIV testing programs. Inmates requested or were referred by medical staff for rapid HIV testing.