ASTHO and de Beaumont Foundation Commit to Improve the Public Health Workforce

(Dec. 12, 2015) Arlington, VA – The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the de Beaumont Foundation announce a new project building upon their successful Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). The new project will enhance public health workforce policies and practice and is called “PH WINS: Research to Action.”

Earlier this year, ASTHO and de Beaumont released PH WINS, the first nationally representative survey of the governmental public health work force. PH WINS surveyed more than 10,000 public health workers, exploring their attitudes, morale, and climate, and developing a baseline of key workforce development metrics. Analyses of the PH WINS data set were published in a special supplemental version of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice in November 2015.

“PH WINS: Research to Action” builds on these findings to meet the training and development needs of the public health workforce. Together, the de Beaumont Foundation and ASTHO will:

1. Create and maintain a community of practice focused on the development of the public health workforce.
2. Craft and implement a standardized training needs assessment that goes beyond PH WINS.
3. Develop and test a web-based tool for high-quality online training for the public health workforce.

To achieve these objectives, ASTHO will utilize focus groups and a newly developed community of practice to develop innovative ideas to encourage the uptake of recommended policies and practices. The outcomes of “PH WINS: Research to Action” will be made available to all state and local health departments. 

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ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in state-based public health practice.

Since 1998, the de Beaumont Foundation has worked to transform the practice of public health in the United States. Founded by Pierre S. de Beaumont, the Foundation primarily supports practice-based projects that provide training and education to the public health workforce; build public health infrastructure; and improve information and data management through innovative technology. For more information, visit debeaumont.org