Developing Complex, Cross-Cutting Skills in the Public Health Workforce: Using a Crosswalk Analysis to Map Public Health Competencies to Strategic Skills for the Governmental Public Health Workforce.

In recent years, many public health organizations have used 2 frameworks for workforce development planning and action: the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) and the Strategic Skills for the Governmental Public Health Workforce (Strategic Skills). A third framework is also available for organizations emphasizing population health: the Competencies for Population Health Professionals (Population Health Competencies). This crosswalk analysis-conducted by the Public Health Foundation with input from the Region 2 Public Health Training Center and the de Beaumont Foundation-harmonizes these 3 schemas by systematically mapping the 2014 version of the Core Competencies and the 2019 Population Health Competencies with the 2017 version of the Strategic Skills to produce a comprehensive matrix depicting their relationships. When developing training and curricula, health department personnel and academic faculty can use the results to identify competencies public health professionals may wish to master to build the Strategic Skills. Organizations can also replicate the analytic methodology to align the Core Competencies with other sets of strategic priorities.

To improve nursing home care in the wake of COVID-19, AGS calls for US government to focus on three critical areas.

In response to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance's hearing on COVID-19 in the nation's nursing homes, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) submitted a written statement for the record, calling on committee members to focus on three critical areas where attention can help achieve the AGS' vision for a future in which we can all contribute to our communities and maintain our health, safety, and independence as we age; and where older people have access to high quality, person-centered care informed by geriatrics principles. These three areas are: (1) investing in the U.S. direct care workforce, the backbone of our health and long-term care system; (2) increasing funding for geriatrics health professions programs under Title VII and ensuring that these programs are included in public health planning efforts; and (3) preparing for public health emergencies with attention to the needs of older Americans.

New York State Local Health Department Preparedness for and Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An In-Progress Review.

A mixed-methods approach was taken to describe lessons learned by local health department leaders during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York State and to document leaders' assessments of their departments' emergency preparedness capabilities and capacities. Leaders participating in a survey rated the effectiveness of their department's capabilities and capacities in administrative and public health preparedness, epidemiology, and communications on a scale from 1 to 5; those partaking in focus groups answered open-ended questions about the same 4 topics. Subjects rated intragovernmental activities most effective ( = 4.41, SD = 0.83) and reported receiving assistance from other county agencies. They rated level of supplies least effective ( = 3.03, SD = 1.01), describing low supply levels and inequitable distribution of testing materials and personal protective equipment among regions. Local health departments in New York require more state and federal aid to maintain the public health workforce in preparation for future emergencies.