Core competencies for doctoral education in public health.

The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) released the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Core Competency Model in 2009. Between 2007 and 2009, a national expert panel with members of the academic and practice communities guided by the ASPH Education Committee developed its 7 performance domains, including 54 competencies. We provide an overview and analysis of the challenges and issues associated with the variability in DrPH degree offerings, reflect on the model development process and related outcomes, and discuss the significance of the model, future applications, and challenges for integration across educational settings.

Competencies for global heath graduate education.

Competency specification and competency-based education (CBE) are increasingly being viewed as essential for optimizing educational outcomes for the next generation of global health workers. An overview is provided of this movement in graduate health professions education in the United States, the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) contributions to advancing and researching related CBE processes and best practices, and the evolving ASPH competency model for graduate global health education.

Tobacco-free community coalitions: opportunities for enhancing oral cancer prevention programs.

Background: This study identified oral cancer (OC) education and tobacco reduction collaboration within tobacco-free community coalitions (TFCC).

Methods: Data from 4 TFCC were collected via educational intervention surveys and structured focused group Interviews.

Results: Of the 52 participants, 96% were aware that tobacco products are risk factors for OC, yet 33% were unaware of the high OC impact locally.

Changes in provider attitudes toward telemedicine.

A longitudinal study was conducted in which the pre- and post-telemedicine encounter attitudes of healthcare providers were compared in order to ascertain whether and how experience with telemedicine changes their attitudes toward telemedicine. Attitudinal changes of providers who had used telemedicine previously were compared to those experiencing telemedicine for the first time. Data were gathered from the providers in two telemedicine programs located in Georgia and Nebraska.

Development of an interprofessional competency model for healthcare leadership.

During the past decade, there has been a growing interest in competency-based performance systems for enhancing both individual and organizational performance in health professions education and the varied healthcare industry sectors. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine's report Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality called for a core set of competencies across the professions to ultimately improve the quality of healthcare in the United States. This article reviews the processes and outcomes associated with the development of the Health Leadership Competency Model (HLCM), an evidence-based and behaviorally focused approach for evaluating leadership skills across the professions, including health management, medicine, and nursing, and across career stages.

Development of a core competency model for the master of public health degree.

Core competencies have been used to redefine curricula across the major health professions in recent decades. In 2006, the Association of Schools of Public Health identified core competencies for the master of public health degree in graduate schools and programs of public health. We provide an overview of the model development process and a listing of 12 core domains and 119 competencies that can serve as a resource for faculty and students for enhancing the quality and accountability of graduate public health education and training.

Why competencies in graduate health management and policy education?

During the past decade there has been a growing interest in learning and competency-based systems in various areas of education, training, and professional development. As a result, a number of competency initiatives have been undertaken across the health professions, including medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. Concurrent with these activities have been the resounding calls for: 1) both curricular content and process review in health administration and related training programs, 2) rethinking and reform of current educational practices, and 3) evidence-based, outcomes-focused education in health management and policy education.

Current marketing practices in the nursing home sector.

Marketing is widely recognized as an essential business function across all industries, including healthcare. While many long-term care facilities adopted basic healthcare marketing practices and hired marketing staff by the early 1990s, a paucity of research on nursing home marketing exists in the literature. This study examines the extent to which nursing homes have developed more formulated marketing and related communication and promotional strategies as market competition has increased in this sector during the past two decades.

Validation of learning style measures: implications for medical education practice.

Background: It is unclear which learners would most benefit from the more individualised, student-structured, interactive approaches characteristic of problem-based and computer-assisted learning. The validity of learning style measures is uncertain, and there is no unifying learning style construct identified to predict such learners.

Objective: This study was conducted to validate learning style constructs and to identify the learners most likely to benefit from problem-based and computer-assisted curricula.

Competency mapping and analysis for public health preparedness training initiatives.

Competency-based education and assessment initiatives have been completed in a number of health care and health management professions during the past decade. In addition, several competency specification endeavors have been similarly undertaken in relation to the field of public health, including the development of the Council on Linkages between Academia and Public Health Practice competency model and the initial competency modeling Delphi survey completed by the Association of Schools of Public Health. All of these organizations have subsequently had to address the many challenges and barriers to the dissemination and integration of their models into specific educational and professional development practices.

Competency identification and modeling in healthcare leadership.

In line with the current interest in leadership development across many industries today, a number of competency-based educational programming initiatives have been launched in professional education. As well, the National Summit on the Future of Education and Practice in Health Management and Policy in 2001 called for the documentation of learning outcomes for continual educational improvement in health management and policy. The National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) subsequently launched a comprehensive, multi-stage process for identifying the competencies salient to distinguishing outstanding leadership performance in health management.

Toward an understanding of competency identification and assessment in health care management.

Given the revolutionary changes occurring in the health care industry, there is increasing agreement that academicians and practitioners must collaborate to identify and prioritize major educational outcomes for health care management. Several competency initiatives have been undertaken or completed in health care and health care management in the last 5 to 7 years. Health care leaders who have undertaken such endeavors reveal that the task is most formidable.

A framework for evaluating and continuously improving the NCHL transformational leadership initiative. National Center for Healthcare Leadership.

The National Center for Healthcare Leadership transformational leadership project is a broad and ambitious initiative that seeks to bring to the table top leaders from industry and academe. Their charge is to accomplish nothing short of resetting the course for health management education and practice in the coming decades. Four councils were recruited to launch the four major interventions: (1) recruitment and diversity, (2) core competencies, (3) the advanced learning institute, and (4) accreditation and certification.