Selected Contributions to Public Health
Training the Public Health Workforce
Examples of achievements are summarized here and regularly updated. Achievements associated with CDC’s Winnable Battles are noted. This term describes public health priorities having large-scale impact on health and for which effective strategies are known.
The Dartmouth College PRC, working with CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), released Smoking Cessation for Pregnancy and Beyond—an interactive web-based training for health care professionals (including physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, certified health educators, pharmacists, and students of the health professions). After completing the training, health care providers are able to apply best practice approaches for smoking cessation among women who are pregnant or in their child-bearing years. The approaches reflect current clinical recommendations from the U.S. Public Health Service and ACOG. The training is accredited for up to 4 hours of continuing education credits. The ACOG and other professional organizations are promoting the training among their constituents.
CDC Winnable Battles: Tobacco
Visit the Smoking Cessation for Pregnancy and Beyond website.
The Teen Years Explained, written by the Johns Hopkins University PRC and released in 2010, describes state-of-the-art knowledge about cognitive development throughout the teen years and how it influences risk assessment, sexual behavior, identity formation, and other dimensions of individual growth. A webinar promoting the book attracted attendees from around the country representing state and local health departments, nonprofit organizations, and federal agencies. The book, intended for public health practitioners, parents, and anyone working with adolescents, is available for purchase online. More than 11,000 copies of the book are already in use.
CDC Winnable Battles: Tobacco; Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity; Motor vehicle injuries; Teen pregnancy; HIV prevention
Information about purchasing the book is available on the PRC’s website.
Since 1995, the University of Minnesota PRC has cosponsored (with the university’s Center for Adolescent Nursing) a Summer Institute on Adolescent Health for about 60 public health practitioners and graduate students each year. Consistent with earlier institutes, the 2010 institute, which addressed youth violence, included young people as teachers. Many of these youths participate in the center’s research and have become leaders in community peacemaking.
Visit the PRC’s website for more information about the training.
The Healthy Aging Research Network includes seven PRCs that collaborate on research and dissemination. The network’s Research to Practice Symposia have addressed physical activity, depression, and environmental and policy change to benefit older adults. Now the network is sponsoring a 4-month online conference series on environmental and policy change for healthy aging. The event is attracting professionals from aging services, public health, planning, architecture, engineering, recreation, transportation, and health care.
Learn more about the network from its website.
The Saint Louis University (with Washington University) PRC developed a training course to increase the capacity of public health professionals to practice evidence-based public health. From its development (in 1997) to 2004, the course was offered 20 times and reached nearly 500 public health professionals domestically and abroad. The course has been translated into Russian and Spanish and continues to be taught. In 2002, the course was recorded on a set of 16 CDs produced with exercises and case studies for self-study by people who cannot travel to a course location or prefer the self-study format (available from the PRC’s website). In addition, Evidence-Based Public Health, a book published in 2003, augments the course for both students and teachers.