Staffing Local Health Departments in Minnesota-Needs, Priorities, and Concerns

Northern Nevada Public Health: Utilizing the Public Health Workforce Calculator and Workforce Capacity Self-assessment Tools to Develop a Framework for Workforce Investment

CONTEXT

Health departments nationally are critically understaffed and lack infrastructure support. By examining current staffing and allocations through a Foundational Public Health Services (FPHS) lens at the Northern Nevada Public Health (NNPH), there is an opportunity to make a strong case for greater investment if current dedicated full-time equivalents are inadequate and to guide which investments in public health workforce are prioritized.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the use of the Public Health Workforce Calculator (calculator) and other tools to identify and prioritize FPHS workforce needs in a field application.

DESIGN

Field application of the calculator in conjunction with the use of FPHS workforce capacity self-assessment tools.

SETTING

NNPH.

PARTICIPANTS

NNPH and Public Health Foundation (PHF).

INTERVENTION

From June 2022 through April 2023, PHF collaborated with NNPH, serving Washoe County, to provide expertise and assistance as NNPH undertook an assessment of its workforce needs based upon the FPHS model.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Comparison of the calculator output with FPHS workforce capacity self-assessment tools.

RESULTS

The calculator and the FPHS capacity self-assessment process yielded complementary FPHS workforce capacity gap data. The use of a structured and transparent process, coupled with additional tools that included prioritizing needs, provided a viable and sustainable process for public health workforce investment planning. NNPH successfully utilized the results to bolster a supplemental funding request and a state public health appropriation.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of the calculator and an FPHS workforce capacity self-assessment in a facilitated and structured process such as that used by NNPH to identify staffing priorities may hold promise as an approach that could be used to support decision-making and justification for infrastructure resources when funding for public health increases in the future.

Strategic Workforce Analysis: Identifying Skills and Gaps Among Frontline Public Health Workers Amidst Transformation

OBJECTIVE

Recent shifts in public health (PH) include consistent budget cuts, workforce attrition, and loss of vital skills and institutional knowledge followed by heightened pandemic-driven attention, new responsibilities, and renewed funding. This study investigates whether frontline employees working in different types of public health departments have different educational characteristics and whether these characteristics are associated with differentials in skill gaps toward informing targeted interventions to nurture a competitive workforce.

METHODS

Utilizing 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) data, we document variations in educational qualifications, skill gaps, and workforce characteristics among frontline workers in different sizes of health departments and examine attributes associated with skill gaps: level and field of education, years of experience, program areas, and job classifications using a negative binomial model.

RESULTS

Skill gaps in resource management, systems and strategic thinking, and change management persist across all local health departments (LHDs), but the extent of these gaps is greater in small LHDs. Small LHDs also have few employees with graduate and public health degrees. Additionally, whereas public health degrees were not associated with fewer skill gaps, tenure in public health was, suggesting people learn on the job.

CONCLUSION

The results highlight the role regional training centers can play in emphasizing the need for strategic skills and foundational public health concepts, as well as customizing training content by agency size and educational levels to improve accessibility, particularly for small LHDs with resource constraints.

Enhancing Workforce Pathways: Insights From a Paid Internship Pilot Program Linking Public Health Students and Local Health Departments

The persistent understaffing of the governmental public health workforce has led to program cutbacks, staff burnout at local health departments (LHDs), and an urgent need to replenish staffing. To build recruitment pathways into LHDs and build their workforce capacity, we introduced a paid internship initiative connecting Master's in Public Health students from a Midwestern university with LHDs in the state. This article presents the pilot program developed and the insights gained from it. Program participants included nine LHDs that hosted 10 students for 12-week internships. Internship projects were developed by LHDs with support from the state's association of county and city health officials. All students completed their internship projects satisfactorily. The experience highlighted that while students contributed to LHDs through short-term projects, with sustained backing and minor adjustments, this model can serve to reinforce the governmental public health sector's existing and future capacity in the long term.