Education of the public health workforce and the Sustainable Development Goals: An analysis of existing competency sets.

Objectives: This paper describes a project designed to quantify the extent to which existing competency frameworks used for educating the public health workforce contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) directly relevant to public health. Study design: This was a qualitative study involving a content and thematic analysis and mapping of nine available public health competency sets against the World Federation of Public Health Association's Global Charter for the Public's Health and the SDGs. Methods: First, the SDG targets directly relevant to public health were selected, then mapped against the elements of the Global Charter to illustrate their alignment with aspects of public health practice. Next, competencies from each respective framework were mapped against the SDG targets, and the results quantified as to the coverage of the SDG targets by each of the frameworks. Results: Overall, very few competencies directly or fully covered the SDG targets in question, however, there were more competencies partially covering the targets. Except for one framework, many issues found in the SDG targets were not explicitly addressed by the competencies in most of the frameworks, namely, migration, human rights, violence, and food and water scarcity. Conclusions: Overall, urgent action is required to ensure public health competency frameworks are more in line with the SDGs and include public health issues that disproportionally affect low- and middle-income countries.

Current developments in accreditation and certification for health promotion and health education: a perspective on systems of quality assurance in the United States.

The health education profession in the United States employs parallel, and overlapping, systems of voluntary credentialing to ensure quality in professional preparation. The U.S. approach to quality assurance comprises credentialing at the individual level, including certification, and at the institutional level, including regional and program-specific accreditation or approval of professional preparation degree programs. These multiple systems and levels of quality assurance have evolved during a half century but have not been uniformly available or universally embraced by the field, employers, or those in the institutional settings in which health educators now receive their professional preparation. This article reviews the current scope of credentialing systems in the United States and explains whom they serve and how they function. Recent developments that are now reshaping the landscape of quality assurance in health education and health promotion are also discussed.

New developments in undergraduate education in public health: implications for health education and health promotion.

The article provides an overview of efforts to improve public health and health education training and on the potential use of Critical Component Elements (CCEs) for undergraduate health education programs toward more consistent quality assurance across programs. Considered in the context of the Galway Consensus Conference, the authors discuss the need for consistency in health education and public health quality assurance and curricular development. They discuss emerging quality assurance trends in relation to newly approved CCEs by the Association of Schools of Public Health after being developed by the Framing the Future Task Force: The Second 100 Years for Public Health. The CCE development process is discussed including its consideration as a tool program, which can be used to develop or refine undergraduate health education professional preparation programs. The authors suggest that CCEs should be "cross-walked" against existing health education undergraduate-level competencies. The authors conclude that CCEs may serve the long-term health education goal of accreditation for undergraduate health education and promote the tradition of strong undergraduate health education within a broader framework of public health and health promotion.

Progress and directions in professional credentialing for health education in the United States.

This article provides an update on initiatives in individual certification and accreditation of academic programs in public/community health education and school health education in the United States. Although we provide some historical context, the focus primarily addresses credentialing efforts that have evolved since the Galway Consensus Conference was convened in 2008 and publication of the Galway Consensus and related manuscripts in 2009. Significant progress has been achieved in updating the health education competencies for entry and advanced levels of practice, as well as in establishing a Master Certified Health Education Specialist designation. Also discussed are contemporary initiatives to expand and improve the accreditation process of academic programs and the evolving higher education contexts in which such systems operate. We conclude by presenting lessons learned from the U.S. experience with credentialing efforts and by offering recommendations that may be applicable to future quality assurance efforts, both in the United States and abroad.

Public health's response to a changed world: September 11, biological terrorism, and the development of an environmental health tracking network.

Historically, the importance of public health has often been recognized during or as a result of major tragedy. The attacks that occurred in the United States in 2001 are no exception. These events have raised awareness of our vulnerability and the need for emergency preparedness, the need for a flexible and sustainable public health infrastructure, and the importance of linkages between environmental exposures and health outcomes. The authors encourage the public health community, along with policymakers, to develop a national environmental health tracking system that can improve our overall public health capacity and prepare us to investigate the critical issues of the day, whether they be emerging infectious diseases, terrorist attacks, or chronic illnesses.