Partnership brings evidence-based public health training to North Carolina
Public health practitioners need evidence-based public health information to make decisions on how best to improve public health system performance and ultimately improve health outcomes. To address this need, the NC Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) and UNC’s Center for Health Promotion/Disease Prevention (HPDP) partnered to serve as one of four sites across the country to tailor a 3-day training course on Evidence-Based Public Health for local public health departments. The course follows the curriculum originally developed by Dr. Ross Brownson and colleagues of the St. Louis Prevention Research Center.
Based on years of experience at both the local and state level, faculty representing the Center for Healthy North Carolina, NC Center for Public Health Quality, Granville-Vance Health District, UNC HPDP, and NCIPH tailored the course for local practitioners in North Carolina. Through this partnership, the Evidence-Based Public Health training was an interactive, three-day course offered April 22-24 to public health educators, intervention specialists, and practitioners. Hosted at East Carolina University, the course highlighted the linkages between data systems and program/policy initiatives so that participants could learn how to access, interpret, and use data to make evidence-based program and policy decisions. Course themes included:
The resulting partnership enhanced the accessibility of the Evidence-Based Public Health course to public health professionals across North Carolina. To assess course impact, members of Dr. Brownson’s team will be conducting follow-up assessments. The project is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through the University of Washington at St. Louis Prevention Research Center. |
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