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Web-based program will close training gap at Department of Health and Environmental Control
February 16, 2009
The Arnold School is developing a public health certificate program offered through the World Wide Web, thanks to a $375,800 grant from the Duke Endowment.
Greg Hand
Dr. Greg Hand, associate dean for research and practice, said the effort targets a training gap for public health practitioners at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Additionally it will help strengthen and unify the Arnold School’s distance learning efforts that now range from real-time streaming video to CDs distributed by mail, he said.
The training needs at DHEC became apparent when a 1999 survey found that only 3.6 per cent of the department’s work force was academically prepared in public health.
Nationwide, about 80 percent of practitioners have no specific training in public health, as noted by Dr. Lillian U. Smith, director of the Arnold School’s Office of Public Health Practice, in her funding application.
According to Dr. Lisa Waddell, deputy commissioner for DHEC’s Health Services, “Recruiting, retaining and developing a top notched public health workforce has been a priority of the agency for some time. The collaboration between the A-SPH and DHEC to develop a certificate in public health has been a joint goal for some time and now, the Duke Endowment Funding will finally make this goal a reality.”
The Office of Public Health Practice and DHEC has contracted with an external source to develop the foundation course, the “Introduction to Public Health,” in a web-based, stand-alone format, Smith said. By requiring all Health Services staff to take Introduction to Public Health, Dr. Lisa Waddell says that the course will serve as an excellent foundational introduction for some and a timely refresher for others.
The Duke funding, which Smith describes as a “godsend” to the program, will allow her to hire an instructional designer, a technical instructional specialist and a project assistant to develop five additional courses:
- Community Assessment
- Public Health Data 101
- Advocacy and Policy Workshop
- Financial Management
- Evidence Based Public Health: Program Planning and Evaluation
Those classes also will be online but will have a more traditional structure with classmates, a facilitator, assignments, etc.
Plans call for the courses to be ready by the end of 2009. As many as 100 practitioners will have the opportunity to take the courses in 2010.
During that time the staff also will develop additional on-demand mini courses, tutorials or refreshers of key concepts from the certificate courses, Smith said.
