Public health system partnerships: role for local boards of health in preparing the future public health workforce.

The Institute of Medicine's report, Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century, recommended that public health education be accessible to undergraduate students. Promoting access to public health education will ideally contribute to a well-educated public health workforce, thus assuring the fulfillment of the public health mission. In response to this call to action, the authors examined the current practice, feasibility, and value in developing a functional partnership between academic institutions and local boards of health in preparing future public health professionals. Local boards of health in New England were surveyed to: (1) establish a baseline of existing working relationships between them and nearby academic institutions; (2) examine the barriers that inhibit the development of their collaborations with academic partners; and (3) assess how they jointly advance public health workforce development. Despite the main barriers of a lack of time, staff, and funding that are often cited for the absence of collaborations between institutions, one New England state, in particular, reported that their academic institution and local board of health partnerships were important and effective. The authors discuss how academic-practice collaborations hold the potential to combine basic public health principles with leadership and governance experience offered by local boards of health. Such partnerships are underutilized and have the potential to integrate core public health concepts while facilitating applied experiential learning opportunities in a professional public health setting, thus contributing to the development of the future public health workforce.

Engaging local public health system partnerships to educate the future public health workforce.

The Institute of Medicine concluded that keeping the public healthy required a well-educated public health workforce, thus leading to its recommendation that "all undergraduates should have access to education in public health" [2]. In response to this call, the authors examined the current practice, feasibility, and value in strengthening (or building) a functional collaborative model between academic institutions and practitioners from local health departments to educate tomorrow's public health workforce. Local and regional health departments in New England were surveyed to: (1) establish a baseline of existing working relationships between them and nearby academic institutions; (2) examine the barriers that inhibit the development of collaborations with academic partners; (3) assess how they jointly promote public health workforce development; and (4) analyze which essential public health services their partnership addresses. Despite the lack of financial resources often cited for the absence of academic-local health department collaborations, some New England states reported that their academic institution and local public health department partnerships were valued and productive. The authors discuss how effective academic-community collaborations have the potential to facilitate a broad-based appreciation of public health among students via a wide array of public health curricula and applied experiential learning opportunities in public health settings. The authors propose a model for how to combine basic public health lessons with practical experience and leadership offered by local health departments, in order to foster a real understanding of public health, its importance, practice, and relevance in today's society from a public health workforce perspective.

A review of interventions to reduce tobacco use in colleges and universities.

BACKGROUND: Interventions have been designed to reduce the prevalence of smoking in college/university students. This review presents a summary and synthesis of the interventions published in English from 1980 to the present. METHODS: Seven databases were searched for relevant published articles, and reference lists were examined for additional published studies. The studies were categorized as (1) individual approaches, such as on-campus cessation programs, and (2) institutional approaches, such as smoke-free policies. The studies were categorized by type of institution and geographic location, study design, sample demographics, and outcomes. RESULTS: Fourteen studies were identified; only five received a "satisfactory" rating based on evaluation criteria. Most studies were based on convenience samples, and were conducted in 4-year institutions. Seven studies used comparison groups, and three were multi-institutional. Individual approaches included educational group sessions and/or individual counseling that were conducted on campus mostly by healthcare personnel. None used nicotine replacement or other medications for cessation. The quit rates for both smokeless tobacco and cigarette users varied, depending on definitions and duration of follow-up contact. Institutional interventions focused mainly on campus smoking restrictions, smoke-free policies, antitobacco messages, and cigarette pricing. Results indicated that interventions can have a positive influence on student behavior, specifically by reducing tobacco use (i.e., prevalence of cigarette smoking and use of smokeless products, amount smoked) among college students, and increasing acceptability of smoking policies and campus restrictions among both tobacco users and nonusers. CONCLUSIONS: While some promising results have been noted, rigorous evaluations of a wider range of programs are needed, along with studies that address cultural and ethnic diversity on campuses.