University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health’s Dr. Martha Wingate, an associate professor in the department of health care organization and policy, and director of maternal and child health policy and leadership program, worked with a team of researchers using the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey to assess in greater detail state injury prevention staff perceptions of policy development and related skills and their awareness and perception of “Health in All Policies” (HiAP).
[Photo: Dr. Martha Wingate]
The public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey gauged public health practitioners’ perspectives on workplace environment, job satisfaction, national trends, and training needs, and gathered demographics on the workforce. This study utilizes data from the state health agency frame only, focusing solely on those permanently employed, central office staff in injury prevention. Respondents were sampled from five paired Health and Human Services regions.
Approximately 25,000 invitations were sent to central office employees. The response rate was 46% (n = 10 246). The analysis in this article includes only injury prevention employees with programmatic roles, excluding clerical and custodial staff, providing us with a total of 97 respondents. When weighted, this resulted in a weighted population size of 365 injury prevention workers.
Approximately 25 000 invitations were sent to central office employees. The response rate was 46% (n = 10 246). The analysis in this article includes only injury prevention employees with programmatic roles, excluding clerical and custodial staff, providing us with a total of 97 respondents. When weighted, this resulted in a weighted population size of 365 injury prevention workers.
State injury prevention workers reported lower policy-making skill but had an overall appreciation of the importance of policies. In general, state injury prevention workers heard of HiAP, thought there should be more emphasis on it, but did not think that HiAP would have an impact on their day-to-day work.
The research team concluded that efforts are needed for all state injury prevention workers to become better skilled in policy development, implementation, and evaluation in order to become stronger injury prevention advocates and role models.
Other members of the research team include: Dr. Liller, University of South Florida College of Public Health; Drs. Chapple-McGruder and Hilson and Mr Castrucci, de Beaumont Foundation, Washington, District of Columbia; Dr. Mendez, department of epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh; Dr. Cilenti, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina; and Ms. Raskind, department of behavioral sciences and health education, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.