Outline Template:
Chapter 2
I.
Introduction
a. Problem: The public health workface is under a great deal of pressure
and due to the silver tsunami will lose a large number of professionals
to retirement in the next few years. This along with a lack of
interaction between academia and actual public health practice limits
the amount of evidence-based practice and exposure being provided to
current student and potential future public health professionals.
Meaningful linkages and continuous communication on the part of
both academia and public health agencies is imperative for students
and respective organizations to improve readiness for future
professionals and in addition meet the needs of providing education
through academia and services through public health
b. Purpose: In the first section, I will review the recent literature on
progress in the area of linking academic and public health practice
including economic impacts, variations in techniques. In the second
section, I will review literature on models moving theory to practice.
In the third section, I will review literature on fundamental changes
that need to take place in order to improve these linkages.
Literature Search Strategy
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II.
Governmental organized were used to identify articles, models,
theories, and overarching infrastructure focused on improving linkages
between academia and public health agencies. National Association of
County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), Public Health
Foundation (PHF), as well as the Journal of Health Management
Practice were searched.
No references from other journals as a search strategy were used to
identify other journal articles.
Academic teaching health departments, linking public health and
academia, teaching health departments
Literature review goes back to 2000 for a few articles is as recent as
2011. Search results are seminal literature and peer reviewed literature.
Conceptual framework
a. Public health practice and academia need to work together to improve
the potential future public health workforce and to provide evidencebased practice opportunities for students. Linking academia and public
health practice.
b. Terms, practices, models/methods for implementation, and tools to
advance partnerships with academia and public health have been peer
reviewed as well as past examples of these linkages. Evaluation of the
success of these models will be important to future success and the
changes needs of both public health and academia.
c. Atchinson, C., Boatright, D.T., Merrigan, D., Quill, B.E., Whittaker,
C., Vickery, A.R. & Aglipay, G.S. (2006). Demonstrating excellence
in practice-based teaching for public health. Journal of Public Health
Management Practice, 12, 15-21.
d. Novick, LF. (2004). The teaching health department. Journal of Public
Health Management Practice, 10, 275-276.
e. This is an appropriate foundation for the study because the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention have provided resources in the past to
evaluate the success of conceptual framework additional progress and
changes need to be made and evaluated to ensure linkages are moving
in the right direction.
III.
Population (Progress Made with Linkages; Techniques and Economics)
a. Since the release of recommendations passed in the 1990’s by the
Public Health Faculty/Agency Forum, many efforts have happened to
link academic and public heath practice including a great deal of
ground work including practicums, collaboration, communication,
educating and teaching methods, however there still continues to needs
across the board to improve and grow these linkages.
Bialek, R. (2000). A decade of progress in academic/practice linkages.
Journal of Public Health Management, 6, 25-31.
b. Public health has a set of core functions that they are expected to
provide with very limited resources. By building relationships with
other organizations including academia, these competencies can be
achieved. One lesson learned was reflected upon, however numerous
agencies still have not built relationships within their communities to
enhance services.
Keck, C.W. (2000). Lessons learned from an academic health
department. Journal of Public Health Management, 6, 47-52.
c. Public health departments are expected to do much with very little
resources. A study was done to show the economic assets of having an
academic health department. With the economic benefits of leveraging
academic and practice-based linkages it appears to be an investment
worth making at the federal, state, and local level, however, funding
for this type of linkage is not something that is seen a great deal at the
local level.
Livingood, W.C, Coughijn, S., Bowman, W., Brayant, T., &
Goldhagen, J. (2007). Application of economic impact analysis to a
local public health agency and its “academic health department”.
Public Health Reports, 122, 27-36.
IV.
Dependent variable (Moving Theory into Practice)
a. Medical schools and public health share many goals which include
improving the health of the public. By building linkages with medical
schools and public health, students will benefit in the long run.
However, population health and individual medical care vary greatly
and sufficient time could be spent to fully understand the enormity of
public health at the community/population-based level.
Maeshiro, R. (2006). Health departments and medical schools.
Journal of Public Health Management, 12, 31-32.
b. The New York City Health Department worked with a local academic
institution and focused on three main goals, getting students connected
to the health department, linking faculty into the health department,
and facilitating health department faculty appointments at the
educational site. However, measuring effectiveness of these linkages
was a challenge and it was noted that in the future it would be helpful
to survey health department staff.
DiMaggio, C., Markenson, D., Henning, K., Redlener, I., &
Zimmerman, R. (2006). Journal of Public Health Management, 12,
221-27.
c. Schools of public health and state and local health departments came
together to strengthen connections with a focus on comprehensive
planning, reformation of practicum experiences, boundary spanning
between academia and public health professionals, joint research
opportunities, and workforce development. In order to fully evaluate
success tools need to be refined and ultimately students need to enter
the public health workforce.
Conte, C., Chang, C.S., Malcolm, J., & Russo, P.G. (2006). Academic
health departments: from theory to practice. Journal of Public Health
Management, 12, 6-14.
V.
Independent variable (Fundamental Changes for the Future)
a. Models of academic and public health linkages were discussed with
the benefits focused on expanding usual practices to include
population health for the researchers and research for the public health
professionals and well as the potential for an increase in number of
individuals working in public health professionals. However, long
term efforts must be put in place to continue strengthening these
efforts and local health departments and academic partners should take
the lead on these efforts.
Swain, G., Bennett, N., Etkind, P., & Ransom, J. (2006). Local health
departments and academic partnerships: education beyond the ivy
walls. Journal of Public Health Management, 12, 33-36.
b. Disconnect between public health practice and academia has many
disadvantages and has been termed artificial. To remedy this funding
was made available temporarily to link local public health and
academia, however funding has now run out and there is limited
funding at the organizational level to support positions for these
liaisons.
Mahan, C. & Silver, G.B. (2006). More practice, but still not perfect.
Journal of Public Health Management, 12, 28-30.
c. A review of the academic and public health linkage efforts shows that
while connections have come a long way they still continue to be
inadequate when it comes to academic and practice-based education.
IOM competencies are used by practitioners but not by academia,
educational changes from the national accrediting agency do not
reflect IOM suggestions and do not require students to spent time
practicing in the field, certification examines do not reflect actual
practice setting, many institutions have created, improved and
expanded practice-based opportunities for students.
Schlaff, A., & Robbins, A. (2009). Teaching health departments:
meeting the challenge of public health education. Journal of Public
Health Management, 15, 439-442.
VI.
Potential confounders (Funding, Public Health Staff Capacity and
Knowledge)
a. (still looking for references)
b. Some of my references already listed in literature review have
components or could be confounders. How should I handle that in the
literature review?
VII.
Conclusion
a. In summary linking academia and public health practice is not a new
concept, however, there continues to be struggles with perfecting this
linkage and providing students evidence-based practice opportunities
that not only benefit the student but also the institutions involved.
b. With a continued need to link academia and public heath, it is no
surprise that many students in public heath related programs are
extremely unaware of what public health professional actually don on
a daily basis, essentially reducing the potential for them to explore
future careers in the public health field.
c. An ideal timeframe for linkages between institution, public health
organization and student is lacking to be addressed within the literature
as well as an effective measurement tool for these partnerships and
linkages. With the vast array of work that public health professionals
do, quantity of exposure likely determines understand of public health
careers and scope of work. In addition to this, the literature lacks
details on specific public health programs and public health related
programs outside of medicine and public health education specifically.
Numerous health related educational programs would benefit from a
public health practice linkage.