Research

Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS)

The Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS), a partnership between ASTHO and the de Beaumont Foundation, is a national level survey of state and local public health agency workers that captures their perspectives on key issues such as workforce engagement and morale, training needs, worker engagement, and emerging concepts in public health. Building upon successful methods and lessons learned from PH WINS 2014, the survey was fielded for the second time in the fall of 2017 to provide actionable, high quality data to support the governmental public health workforce. Approximately 102,305 staff were invited to participate and 47,756 employees across 47 state health agencies and 96 independent local health departments responded to the survey. Learn more about PH WINS »

PH WINS: Research to Action

PH WINS: Research to Action built on the findings of PH WINS to meet the training and development needs of the public health workforce. Together, ASTHO and the de Beaumont Foundation created and maintained a learning collaborative focused on the development of the public health workforce, crafted and implemented a standardized training needs assessment, and launched a model policies challenge to collect best practices related to human resources and workforce development.

Directors Assessment of Workforce Needs (DAWNS)

Fielded in the summer of 2017, ASTHO fielded the Directors Assessment of Workforce Needs Survey (DAWNS). The goal of DAWNS was to understand state governmental public health leadership perspectives on workforce development needs, recruitment issues, and training of the workforce. DAWNS, built on the work of the 2016 Workforce Gaps study, complements ongoing workforce development research including the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS), which focuses on individual practitioner perspectives.

Workforce Gaps and Enumeration

To strengthen the public health system in an evidence-based manner, ASTHO, in partnership with the University of Michigan and CDC, identified and defined the gaps in capacity (needs) of the public health workforce. The goals for this project were to measure public health workforce gaps, outline strategies for supporting workforce development, develop a methodology for identifying and measuring predictors of workforce diversity, and further develop, refine and test the public health workforce CDC-sponsored taxonomy developed by the University of Michigan.

Human Resources and Workforce Development Directors Peer Network

ASTHO convenes a peer network of human resources and workforce development directors to foster collaboration and share best practices among workforce development and human resources professionals in state and territorial health agency leadership positions. The network is open to all 59 ASTHO member jurisdictions and currently has approximately 80 members. Primary activities of the network include conference calls/webinars, resource sharing, and building valuable professional relationships.

Publications and Resources

Journal of Public Health Management and Practice PH WINS Supplement
To promote the translation of the data collected as part of PH WINS and to assist workforce development efforts across the country, this special supplement from JPHMP focuses exclusively on the results of PH WINS 2014 and its implications for the field.