The Advocacy in Action Consultation Group have developed a Draft Position Statement: Educating the Public Health Workforce. The principles and statement articulate:
- The scope of public health and the diversity of public health professionals
- CAPHIA’s role in public health education across Australasia
- Considerations when developing public health education
- The connection between education and the public health workforce
- The reasoning for high quality, structured education for the public health workforce
Further to the emailed request, we are calling for member institutions to provide written feedback via email by Wednesday 7 December 2022.
Background
The Advocacy in Action Consultation Group was expanded in mid-2022 and includes a diversity of public health academics, students and practitioners across our membership.
The CAPHIA Advocacy in Action Plan 2022-2024 was developed and submitted to the Board in August 2022 and shared at the Heads of Schools Summit to inform the Advocacy prioritisation workshop in November 2022.
In preparation for the Australian CDC consultation, the group formed two subgroups: one to investigate international models of CDC to identify patterns and make recommendations and a second to investigate public health workforce strengths and gaps. The second built on the Open Letter in the ANZJPH in May 2022: Government support and commitment to university-level public health education, research and workforce development is critical and the Global Network for Academic Public Health’s 2021 call to action: Global governance for improved human, animal, and planetary health: the essential role of schools and programs of public health.
The need for guiding principles were required to aid the Advocacy in Action Consultation Group and subgroups conduct their work. The Group then collaboratively developed the draft Position Statement.
Development Process
The Position Statement reflects synthesising discussions with individual public health academics from member institutions (Heads of Schools, CAPHIA representatives, governance groups, members, etc.) and conversations and concepts within the Advocacy in Action Consultation Group and its subgroups. The Draft Position Statement was sent to Board members out of session for feedback and input before being shared with members.
We thank our wonderful Advocacy in Action Consultation Group and subgroups for their time and expertise to develop this Position Statement.
Guiding Questions for Member Consultation
Terminology
- Should we be using the terminology “public health professional,” “public health practitioner” or something else?
- Should we include the term “training” in the spectrum of education?
Representation and Equity
- Are the statements reflective of the views of CAPHIA member institutions?
- Is anything missing?
- Are further changes required?
- Could any of the statements or principles inadvertently cause harm or exclusion (of our members or the communities they serve)?
Feedback on these, or any other aspect of the Position Statement, is welcome via email by 7 December 2022.