Public health system partnerships: role for local boards of health in preparing the future public health workforce.

The Institute of Medicine's report, Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century, recommended that public health education be accessible to undergraduate students. Promoting access to public health education will ideally contribute to a well-educated public health workforce, thus assuring the fulfillment of the public health mission. In response to this call to action, the authors examined the current practice, feasibility, and value in developing a functional partnership between academic institutions and local boards of health in preparing future public health professionals.

Engaging local public health system partnerships to educate the future public health workforce.

The Institute of Medicine concluded that keeping the public healthy required a well-educated public health workforce, thus leading to its recommendation that "all undergraduates should have access to education in public health" [2]. In response to this call, the authors examined the current practice, feasibility, and value in strengthening (or building) a functional collaborative model between academic institutions and practitioners from local health departments to educate tomorrow's public health workforce. Local and regional health departments in New England were surveyed to: (1) establish a baseline of existing working relationships between them and nearby academic institutions; (2) examine the barriers that inhibit the development of collaborations with academic partners; (3) assess how they jointly promote public health workforce development; and (4) analyze which essential public health services their partnership addresses.