Competencies

The Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) are a consensus set of skills for the broad practice of public health, as defined by the 10 Essential Public Health Services. Developed by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council on Linkages), the Core Competencies reflect foundational skills desirable for professionals engaging in the practice, education, and research of public health.

Levels of Public Health Practice Competency

Awareness-Level 
What an individual knows
These attributes represent a basic level of knowledge and understanding. When an awareness-level training is complete, the individual should be able to describe, explain, identify, and/or recognize public health concepts, all of which provide a framework for performance-level competencies.

Performance-Level
What an individual can do
These attributes reflect a higher level of skill or ability, some of which may require field training. When a performance-level training is complete, the individual should be able to demonstrate, develop, generate, implement, and/or initiate to effectively contribute to the solution of public health problems.

Resources

 

LPHI Competency Report

Local public health agencies in Massachusetts and across the U.S. provide a wide range of services to protect the public’s health. To ensure consistency across local public health agencies, in March 2006, LPHI’s Advisory Committee established a subcommittee to develop a competency model and set of competencies.

The subcommittee was tasked with producing a competency report that identified:

  1. the work being done by local public health entities across Massachusetts
  2. the individuals who are doing the work
  3. the legal and regulatory climate in which they were operating

Additional support was provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) via the New England Alliance for Public Health Workforce Development and Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH).

Blueprint for Public Health Excellence: Recommendations for Improved Effectiveness and Efficiency of Local Public Health Protections

The Special Commission on Local and Regional Public Health was established in August 2016 to “assess the effectiveness and efficiency of municipal and regional public health systems and to make recommendations regarding how to strengthen the delivery of public health services and preventive measures.” The Commission concluded its work with the release of its final report, Blueprint for Public Health Excellence: Recommendations for Improved Effectiveness and Efficiency of Local Public Health Protections in June 2019.

10 Essential Public Health Services

Health departments and community partners around the nation organize their work around the 10 Essential Public Health Services framework. Schools and programs of public health teach according to the framework, and the framework informs descriptions and definitions of practice. The 10 Essential Public Health Services was updated in Fall 2020. .