The Evaluation of Training Gaps among Public Health Practitioners in Washington State

Abstract

University of Washington Abstract The Evaluation of Training Gaps among Public Health Professionals in Washington State Solongo Sainkhuu Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Joana Cunha-Cruz Department of Health Services Identifying the training gaps in public health competencies and strategic skills is a first step in the development of effective workforce development plans and strategies. The purpose of this study was to identify training gaps in public health competencies and strategic skills among local, tribal, and State public health employees in Washington State using an online cross-sectional survey from 2016. Domains where participants reported to have low training confidence and high training needs were coded as “training gaps”. We investigated the associations between training gaps and demographic and work characteristics for two competencies and two skills with the highest training gaps. The largest training gaps among public health competencies were in financial planning (Mean: 37.87, Standard Deviation (SD): 34.94) and policy development (Mean: 34.13, SD: 35.37). For strategic skills, the largest training gaps were in quality improvement (Mean: 37.02, SD: 39.44) and developing effective communication campaign (Mean: 30.54, SD: 34.70). In multiple regression analyses, women had lower training gaps in financial planning (Coefficient (β): -9.97, Confidence Interval (CI): -16.8, -3.14), policy development (β: -8.39, CI:-14.1, -2.68), and quality improvement (β: -11.72, CI: -16.76, -6.68) compared to men.