Competency Gaps Among Governmental Public Health Employees With and Without a Certification in Public Health

Area of Science:

• Public Health Workforce Development
• Credentialing and Professional Development
• Competency Assessment

Background:

• The majority of governmental public health employees lack a formal public health degree.
• Assessing the impact of professional credentials on workforce competency is crucial for public health infrastructure.
• Understanding competency gaps is vital for targeted training and development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate competency gaps among governmental public health workers, comparing those with and without the Certified in Public Health (CPH) credential.
• To specifically analyze the impact of the CPH credential on workers without a formal public health degree.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study utilizing 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) data.
• Nationally representative sample of 36,752 U.S. governmental public health employees across state and local health agencies.
• Multivariate logistic regressions were used to analyze self-reported competency gaps, controlling for demographic and professional factors.

Main Results:

• Public health workers without a formal degree and holding a CPH credential reported fewer competency gaps in specific skills compared to their non-CPH counterparts.
• This association was observed for nonsupervisors (3/23 skills) and supervisors/managers (6/24 skills).
• No significant differences in competency gaps were found for executives with or without a CPH, and few differences were noted for the workforce overall.

Conclusions:

• The Certified in Public Health (CPH) credential is associated with reduced self-reported competency gaps, particularly for the substantial segment of the public health workforce lacking a formal public health degree.
• The CPH credential demonstrates value for governmental public health employees without formal public health education.
• The impact of the CPH credential appears less pronounced for executive-level public health professionals compared to other supervisory roles.