The above links will take you to the Center for the Health Professions site.

Center for California Health Workforce Studies

Public Health

In 2002 the Institute of Medicine released a report stating that the Nation’s public health system is in need of a major overhaul. We expect the public health system to be able to handle the new threats of bioterroism as well as the existing social and environmental conditions that undermine health, including toxic water and air, poor housing, poverty, and uneven access to health care, make the system ripe for failure. Problems such as a vulnerable and outdated health information system, an insufficient and inadequately trained public health workforce, lack of reliable funding, lack of coordination with other government agencies, and antiquated laboratory capacity makes it questionable whether this is possible. Our Center is undertaking a new project examining the public health workforce in California starting in Fall 2002. We will be assessing the differences in staffing in light of organizational responsibilities and relationships within public agencies.

California lacks a comprehensive source of detailed information on its public health workforce and the impact of market and public policy forces on that workforce. Unlike individual clinician studies where researchers have an identifiable, licensed workforce to assess, public health workforce studies are far more difficult, involving a multitude of professionals and support staff across a variety of organizations and sectors. There is no uniform classification scheme for the public health workforce, an absence of consistent public health credentialing requirements, and a lack of formal training among workers. Yet, these workers are responsible for a wide variety of essential services, the provision of which varies based on the population, environmental, and political characteristics of the region being served. Our Center’s 1999 study on the California public health system exemplifies how diverse our public health system is.

A constant tension for the public health system exists in allocating staff and resources between the core functions of assessment, policy development and assurance and providing clinical services for the indigent. We explored this issue by conducted a survey of public health nursing in five California counties that examined the changing roles of public health nurses in local public health departments. Our study, “How much Public Health is in Public Health Nursing” is under review and will be published soon.

The public health workforce is a key ingredient in the success or failure of the public health system’s ability to carry out its programs and functions. Our Center will continue to examine the important public health workforce issues of education, competence, regulation, supply, distribution and composition.

For a listing of our Public Health Projects click here.

To read our reports on Public Health please click here.

For more resources on Public Health please click here.