ASPHER V4 Working Group supports the road map for professionalising the public health workforce

Background The ASPHER V4 Working Group (WG) was established in 2016 and officially launched during the 9th European Public Health Conference in Vienna. One of the key objectives of the WG is to strengthen public health capacity development in V4 countries. The WG supports the implementation of the recently reviewed European Action Plan for Strengthening Public Health Capacities (EAP). The EAP’s review highlighted the need to focus further action on four enabling Essential Public Health Functions (EPHOs) including human resources for public health. This is why the WG is heavily involved in the recent development of a new Road map for professionalising the public health workforce, one of the products of the recently established Coalition of Partners (CoP) that was convened by the WHO Regional Office for Europe in close cooperation with ASPHER and Maastricht University. Objectives Supporting the WHO CoP with a focus on development and further implementation of a new Road map for professionalising public health workforce in V4 countries. Using a new rapid assessment tool to evaluate the state of the public health profession in the Czech Republic. Sharing the report on the current state of public health professions in the Czech Republic with the WG and using it as a comparison of the current state in all V4 countries. Results Key strengths and weaknesses of the first rapid assessment of the current state of the public health profession in the Czech Republic are presented. Key actions are proposed for the WG: a) Preparation of a grant proposal to the International V4 Fund and b) Continuing active involvement in CoP activities. Conclusions The rapid assessment tool for evaluating the state of the public health profession was successfully implemented in the Czech Republic with the close cooperation of academia, researchers, policy makers and practitioners. The summary confirms that further work on the professionalization of the public health workforce is needed. Key messages ASPHER V4 WG is strongly involved in the development of a new road map for professionalising the public health workforce, coordinated by the WHO CoP, ASPHER and Maastricht University. Summary of the first rapid assessment of the current state of the public health profession in the Czech Republic confirms the importance of further action in this area of work.

Bridging towards the future of public health in Europe (II). Can we and how do we ensure Health in All EU Policies?

The plenary will continue the debate on The future of Public Health in Europe introduced in the previous plenary, tackling the role of the EU and its institutions in ensuring that health is addressed in all EU policies. The EU is firmly committed to implementing the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals through its range of institutional mechanisms. Incoming Commission President von der Leyen has pledged to refocus the European Semester ‘to make sure we stay on track with our SDGs’. These developments, together with the broad recognition of the central role of health in the SDGs and the momentum given by the new EU policy cycle presents a unique window of opportunity to critically reappraise the role of health in the EC, which, at least, on paper makes for an ideal Health in All Policies institution. The first keynote by Director General Anne Bucher, DG SANTE, will draw on the ‘hot of the press’ results of the November 2019 State of Health in the EU exercise, including the EU Country Health Profiles and the Commission Staff Companion Report. She will highlight the main health and health system challenges faced by EU Member States—ranging from the burden posed by preventable mortality to the vaccination crisis and the resilience of the health workforce. Prof. Scott Greer’s keynote will contend that to tackle these challenges we need to go beyond Public Health Article 168 and its subsidiarity corset. He will speak to the need to proactively employ the much stronger (health) policy tools within the large body of EU law underlying the internal market and to draw on the EU’s newfound role in fiscal governance such as through the European semester. Prof. Greer will draw on the innovative results of the new edition of the seminal study ‘Everything you always wanted to know about European Union health policies but were afraid to ask’ which will be distributed to participants. The following panel will debate on the practical implementation and political economy questions arising from the plenary’s postulates. Prof. John Middleton, ASPHER’s president, will address the implications for the Public Health profession such as training in public health leadership, overhauling public health competencies or indeed the understanding of the public health profession itself. The second panellist will address the political economy implications of bringing health across EU policies and how to bypass the complexities of working across policy sectors in the EU institutions. The panel will actively interact with the participating audience through a range of innovative ways. Panellists Anne Bucher DG SANTE, European Commission Scott L. Greer Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan John Middleton The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPHER)

Student’s Perception and Attitudes toward Public Health Profession and National Competency Examination

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves /> <w:TrackFormatting /> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF /> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark /> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp /> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables /> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx /> <w:Word11KerningPairs /> <w:CachedColBalance /> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math" /> <m:brkBin m:val="before" /> <m:brkBinSub m:val="&#45;-" /> <m:smallFrac m:val="off" /> <m:dispDef /> <m:lMargin m:val="0" /> <m:rMargin m:val="0" /> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup" /> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440" /> <m:intLim m:val="subSup" /> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr" /> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> One form of quality assurance is convening public health’s national competencies examination in academic phase which is conducted before students graduate from university. The purpose of this study was to determine students’s perceptions and attitudes about public health’s profession and national competencies examination.</span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></strong><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> The design of this study was descriptive qualitative employed case study approach. Focus group discussion was used to collect data. Data were analyzed by content analysis.</span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></strong><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;">Students felt less confident about their identity profession so that requires motivation by lecturer. Students expressed the need to improve public health graduates’s competencies since academic phase. National competencies examination is important to do as a solution to guarantee the graduates’s quality. Implementation of the competencies test is need to consider aspects of management and technical readiness.</span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></strong><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> National competencies examination is a tool that could proves the identity of public health graduates’s competencies. Everyone with a public health background should know that there will be a competency test then they should have an adequate preparation.</span></p>

Student’s Perception and Attitudes toward Public Health Profession and National Competency Examination

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves /> <w:TrackFormatting /> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF /> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark /> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp /> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables /> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx /> <w:Word11KerningPairs /> <w:CachedColBalance /> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math" /> <m:brkBin m:val="before" /> <m:brkBinSub m:val="&#45;-" /> <m:smallFrac m:val="off" /> <m:dispDef /> <m:lMargin m:val="0" /> <m:rMargin m:val="0" /> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup" /> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440" /> <m:intLim m:val="subSup" /> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr" /> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> One form of quality assurance is convening public health’s national competencies examination in academic phase which is conducted before students graduate from university. The purpose of this study was to determine students’s perceptions and attitudes about public health’s profession and national competencies examination.</span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></strong><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> The design of this study was descriptive qualitative employed case study approach. Focus group discussion was used to collect data. Data were analyzed by content analysis.</span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></strong><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;">Students felt less confident about their identity profession so that requires motivation by lecturer. Students expressed the need to improve public health graduates’s competencies since academic phase. National competencies examination is important to do as a solution to guarantee the graduates’s quality. Implementation of the competencies test is need to consider aspects of management and technical readiness.</span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></strong><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> National competencies examination is a tool that could proves the identity of public health graduates’s competencies. Everyone with a public health background should know that there will be a competency test then they should have an adequate preparation.</span></p>