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Barbara Rose:
The COVID-19 pandemic drove high staff turnover in health departments around the country, with many new employees reporting little or no formal public health training. In response, the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice launched “Essentially Public Health,” a live training about the foundations of Public Health and Health Equity to help health departments bring new staff from various teams and backgrounds together to learn about these concepts and about each other. The multi-part training is grounded in the public health core functions, assessment, policy, development, and assurance as they relate to health equity and to the 10 essential public health services.

Throughout the training, participants explore practical applications of these classic frameworks and review relevant case examples from everyday public health work to better tie these concepts to their roles. With approximately eight hours of material, the training can be delivered over three online sessions or in one in-person workshop. In 2024, facilitators delivered the material to learners working throughout Region 10, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, six times over 12 months, both virtually and in person, to A total of 186 participants.

The largest group of registrants came from local health departments, followed by state health departments, and then tribes and tribal serving organizations. The most common types of registrants were program coordinators, followed by administrators, managers, and directors. 90% of participants agreed that their understanding of the material improved because of having participated in this training, and 92% of participants reported having identified actions they will take to apply information they learned from this training to their work. Participants reported that the most valuable parts of the training were learningthe foundations of public health, receiving and using tools and worksheets, and pairing real-life examples with the concepts and activities in the training. Participants also valued hearing from others around the region on the work they do and learning about the field of public health from different perspectives. In conclusion, public health leaders and managers need no-cost and low-cost training and workforce development resources to onboard new staff quickly. Essentially, Public Health Live is an effective training to help these new staff learn the foundations of public health work, how those principles apply to their roles, and how to keep equity in the foreground of their day-to-day work. You can learn more about this and other public health training from the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice at www.nwcphp.org.