Curriculum

Public Health Overview

4 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Detail the history of public health services delivered in the United States
• Describe legal principles, scope, and the role of government within public health practice.
• Demonstrate the use of plain language including the ability to support, use, and maintain communication technologies needed to interact with community residents.
• Discuss the importance of reflection in professional practice.
• Discuss how to develop and maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce with the cross-cutting skills and competencies needed to implement the FPHS effectively and equitably; and manage human resource functions including recruitment, retention, and succession planning, training, and performance review and accountability.

• Core Competencies
• Workplace Satisfaction Survey
• Public Health 101
• Public Health Frameworks and Practice Models
• Discussion
• Public Health Law, Policy, and Ethics
• Scavenger Hunt
• Health Literacy
• Reflection

Health Equity

5.75 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Strategically address social and cultural determinants of health through policy, programs, and services as a necessary pathway to achieve equity.
• Systemically integrate equity into each aspect of the Foundational Public Health Services, strategic priorities, and include equity-related accountability metrics into all programs and services
• Work collaboratively across the department and the community to build support for and foster a shared understanding of the critical importance of equity to achieve community health and wellbeing.
• Develop and support staff to address equity
• Create a shared understanding of what creates health including structural and systemic factors that produce and reproduce inequities

• Health Equity 101
• Conditions of Health
• Social Determinants of Health
• Discussion
• Case Study
• Neighborhoods and Health
• Power and Policies
• Scavenger Hunt
• Health in All Policies
• Building Capacity and Sustaining Effort

Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention

7.25 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Explain how public health provides timely, statewide, and locally relevant, and accurate information to the health care system and community on chronic disease and injury prevention and control.
• Identify statewide and local chronic disease and injury prevention community partners and their capacities, develop and implement a prioritized prevention plan, and seek funding for high priority initiatives.
• Describe how public health can reduce statewide and community rates of tobacco use through a program that conforms to standards set by the state or local laws and CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health; including, activities to reduce secondhand smoke exposure, as well as exposure to harmful substances.
• Recognize how public health coordinates and integrates categorically-funded chronic disease and injury prevention programs and services.
• Evaluate ways to engage members of the community in a community health improvement process that draws from community health assessment data and establishes a plan for addressing priorities. The community health improvement plan can serve as the basis for partnership and coordination of effort and resources.

• Chronic Disease Overview
• Scavenger Hunt
• Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Prevention
• Tobacco Prevention
• Alcohol
• Injury Prevention
• Health Behaviors
• Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change
• What Works for Health
• CHA & CHIP Overview
• Showcase
• Discussion

Communication and Community Partnership Development

6 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Identify how to maintain ongoing relations with local and statewide media including the ability to write a press release, conduct a press conference, and use electronic communication tools to interact with the media.
• Detail how to write and implement a routine communications plan and develop routine public health communications including to reach communities not traditionally reached through public health channels.
• Recognize how public health transmits and receives routine communications to and from the public in an appropriate, timely, and accurate manner, on a 24/7 basis.
• Explain how to develop and implement a proactive health education/health communication strategy (distinct from risk communication) that disseminates timely and accurate information to the public designed to encourage actions to promote health in culturally and linguistically appropriate forms for the various communities serve, including using electronic communication tools.
• Discuss how to create, convene, and sustain strategic, non-program specific relationships with key community groups or organizations representing populations experiencing health disparities or inequities; private businesses and health care organizations; and relevant federal, tribal, state, and local government agencies and nonelected officials.
• Demonstrate ability to establish and maintain trust with and authentically engage community members and populations most impacted by inequities in key public health decision-making and use community-driven approaches.

• Scavenger Hunt
• Health Communication
• Health Messaging Part I
• Health Messaging Part II
• Discussion
• Media
• Health Education
• Community Engagement
• Community Coalitions
• Case Study
• Public Health 3.0

Accountability and Performance Management

7.5 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Recognize how public health performs according to accepted business standards and is held accountable in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws and policies
• Define how public health departments assure compliance with national and Public Health Accreditation Board standards
•  Detail how organizational objectives are achieved and monitored through a performance management system
• Apply evidence-based and/or promising practices when implementing new or revised processes, programs, and/or interventions at the organizational level
• Identify nationally recognized framework quality improvement tools and methods and explain how they contribute to and maintain an organization-wide culture of quality improvement
• Describe how to establish a budgeting, auditing, billing, financial system, chart of expense and revenue accounts in compliance with federal, state, and local standards and processes
• Articulate how to secure grants or other funding (governmental and not) and how public health departments demonstrate compliance with an audit required for the sources of funding utilized

Learning Activities:

• Overview of Accountability and Performance Management
• Scavenger Hunt
• Quality Improvement
• Discussion
• Introduction to Evidence-Based Public Health
• Models, Methods, and Tools
• Programmatic Budgets and Funding
• Program Planning and Evaluation
• Public Health Accreditation
• Case Study
• Professional Development

Communicable Disease

7.25 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Explain how public health provides timely, statewide, locally relevant and accurate information to the health care system and community on communicable diseases and their control.
• Discuss how public health identifies statewide and local communicable disease control community partners and their capacities, develops, and implements a prioritized communicable disease control plan and how to seek and security funding for high priority initiatives.
• Describe how public health receives laboratory reports and other relevant data, conducts disease investigations including contacting tracing and notification, and recognizes, identifies, and responds to communicable disease outbreaks for notifiable conditions in accordance with local, national, and state mandates and guidelines.
• Determine how public health assures the availability of partner notification services for newly diagnosed case of syphilis, gonorrhea, and HIV according to CDC guidelines.
• Define how public health assures the appropriate treatment of individuals who have reportable communicable diseases, such as TB, STIs, and HIV in accordance with local and state laws and CDC guidelines.
• Explain how public health supports the recognition of outbreaks and other events of public health significance by assuring capacity for the identification and characterization of the causative agents of disease and their origin, including those that are rare and unusual.
• Recognize how public health coordinates and integrates categorically-funded communicable disease programs and services.
• Prioritize and respond to data requests, including vital records, and to translate data into information and reports that are valid, statistically accurate, and accessible to the intended audiences.
• Indicate how a public health organization maintains and procures the hardware and software needed to access electronic health information to support the department’s operations and analysis of health data.
• Validate the proper systems and controls are in place to keep health and human resources data confidential in a public health organization

• Communicable Disease
• Scavenger Hunt
• Surveillance and Disease Investigation
• Electronic Health Data
• Contact Tracing
• Epidemiology 101
• Motivational Interviewing
• Outbreaks & Investigation
• Case Study
• Discussion
• Tuberculosis
• Sexually Transmitted Infections

Environmental Health

8 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Explain how public health provides timely, statewide, and locally relevant and accurate information to the state, health care system, and community on environmental public health issues and health impacts from common environmental or toxic exposures.
• Identify statewide and local community environmental public health partners and their capacities, develop and implement a prioritized plan, and seek action funding for high priority initiatives.
• Describe how public health conducts mandated environmental public health laboratory testing, inspections, and oversight to protect food, recreation sites, and drinking water; manages liquid and solid waste streams safely; and identifies other public health hazards related to environmental factors in accordance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
• Indicate how public health protects workers and the public from chemical and radiation hazards in accordance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
• Articulate how public health participates in broad land use planning and sustainable development to encourage decisions that promote positive public health outcomes (e.g., housing, and urban development, recreational facilities, and transportation systems) and resilient communities
• Recognize how public health coordinates and integrates categorically funded environmental public health programs and services.

• Introduction to Environmental Health
• Scavenger Hunt
• Discussion
• The Built Environment
• Food Safety
• Food Safety Case Study
• Drinking Water
• Liquid and Solid Waste Management
• Lead
• Chemical and Radiation Hazards
• Radon
• Recreational Activities
• Hazardous Living Conditions
• Hoarding Case Study
• Zoonotic and Vector-Borne Diseases
• Planetary Health

Maternal, Child, and Family Health

8.25 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Detail how public health provides timely, statewide, and locally relevant, accurate information to the health care system and community on emerging and ongoing maternal child health trends.
• Identify local maternal and child health community partners and their capacities
• Demonstrate life course expertise and an understanding of health disparities to understand how to develop a prioritized prevention plan and seek funding for high priority initiatives.
• Describe, disseminate, and promote emerging and evidence-based early interventions in the prenatal and early childhood period that promote lifelong health and positive social-emotional development.
• Explain how newborn screening is assured as mandated by a state or local governing body including wraparound services, report back, follow, and service engagement activities.
• Recognize how to coordinate and integrate categorically funded maternal, child, and family health programs and services

• Overview of MCH
• MCH Assurance
• WIC
• Scavenger Hunt
• Trauma Informed Care
• Discussion
• Case Study
• Life Course Perspective
• Reproductive Justice
• Childhood Vaccines
• Vaccine Hesitancy
• Conspiracy Theories and Public Health

Access to and Linkage with Clinical Care

7.5 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Detail how public health provides timely, statewide, and locally relevant and accurate information to the health care system and community on access and linkage to clinical care (including behavioral health), healthcare system access, quality, and cost
• Locate what organizations inspect and license healthcare facilities, and license, monitors, and discipline healthcare providers, where applicable
• Identify healthcare partners and competencies and describe how to develop prioritized plans for increasing access to health homes and quality health care in addition to seek funding for high priority policy initiatives, in concert with national and statewide groups and local providers of health care
• Explain how public health convenes across governmental agencies, such as departments of transportation, aging, substance abuse/mental health, education, planning and development, or others, to protect community members of the health departments jurisdiction.

• Health Care Coverage and Access to Care Overview
• Scavenger Hunt
• Rural Health
• Substance Use Disorders and Mental Health
• Oral Health
• Transportation
• Aging
• American Indian/Alaska Native Health
• Discussion

Emergency Preparedness

8.25 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Describe how public health develops, exercises, and maintains preparedness and response strategies and plans in accordance with established guidelines, and to address a range of events including natural or other disasters, communicable disease outbreaks, environmental emergencies, or other events, which may be acute or occur over time.
• Discuss how to integrate social determinants of health, and actions to address inequities, including ensuring the protection of high-risk populations, into all plans, programs, and services.
• Describe how public health activates the emergency response personnel and communications systems in the event of public health crisis.
• Describe how public health develops and implements a risk communication strategy for communicating with the public during a public health crisis or emergency. This includes the ability to provide accurate and timely information and to address misconceptions and misinformation, and to assure information is accessible to and appropriate for all audiences.
• Detail how public health coordinates with federal, state, and local emergency managers and other first responders, and private sector and nonprofit partners; and operate within, and as necessary lead, the incident management system.
• Articulate how public health maintains and executes a continuity of operations plan that includes a plan to access financial resources to execute an emergency and recovery response.
• Demonstrate how to establish and promote basic, ongoing community readiness, resilience, and preparedness by enabling the public to take necessary action before, during, or after a disaster, emergency, or public health event.
• Explain how public health issues and enforces emergency health orders.
• Express how public health is notified and responds to events on a 24/7 basis.
• Indicate how public health functions as a Laboratory Response Network (LRN) Reference laboratory for biological agents and as an LRN chemical laboratory at a level designated by CDC.

• Emergency Preparedness Overview
• Scavenger Hunt
• Incident Command System
• National Incident Management System
• Laws and Regulations
• Public Health Response
• Case Study
• Laboratory Response Network
• Psychological Resilience
• Discussion
• Crisis and Risk Communication
• Community Readiness and Resiliency

Leadership and Policy Development

5.25 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Demonstrate ability to lead internal and external stakeholders to consensus, with movement to action, and to serve as the public face of governmental public health in the department’s jurisdiction.
• Discuss how to directly engage in health policy development, discussion, and adoption with local, state, and national policymakers, and to define a strategic direction of public health initiatives.
• Articulate how to engage with the appropriate governing entity about the department’s public health legal authorities and what new laws and policies might be needed.
• Describe the ability to access and appropriately use legal services in planning, implementing, and enforcing, public health initiatives, including relevant administrative rules and due process
• Explain how public health serves as a primary and expert resource for establishing, maintaining, and developing basic public health policy recommendations that are evidence-based, grounded in law, and legally defendable. This ability includes researching, analyzing, costing out, and articulating the impact of such policies and rules where appropriate, as well as the ability to organize support for these policies and rules and place them before an entity with the legal authority to adopt them.
• Detail how to effectively inform and influence polices being considered by other governmental and non-governmental agencies within your jurisdiction that can improve the physical, environmental, social, and economic conditions affecting health but are beyond the immediate scope or authority of the governmental public health department.

• Public Health Leadership
• Introduction to Policy Development
• Health in All Policies
• Scavenger Hunt
• Public Health Advocacy
• Collaborative Decision Making
• Case Study
• Public Health Authority
• Discussion
• Professional Organizations
• Professional Certification

Evidence-Based Public Health

2 contact hours/credits will be available for successful completion of this session.

• Articulate how to collect timely and sufficient foundational data to guide public health planning and decision making at the state and local level, including the personnel and technology that enable collection.
• Demonstrate how to ​collect, access, analyze, interpret, and use data from a variety of sources including granular data and data disaggregated by geography (e.g., census tract, zip code), sub-populations, race, ethnicity, and other variables that fully describe the health and well-being of a community and the factors that influence health. 

• Core Competencies
• Workplace Satisfaction Survey
• Foundational Data
• Dissemination and Implementation
• Evidence-Based Practice or Quality Improvement Project Presentation