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Rising Demand for Policy Engagement Skills in Large Local Health Departments (LHDs): Evidence from PH WINS 2024
Madyson Popalis1, Jonathon P Leider, Moriah Robins
1Author Affiliations: de Beaumont Foundation, PH WINS, Bethesda, Maryland (Mss Popalis and Robins); and Region V Public Health Training Center and Center for Public Health Systems, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Dr Leider).
Nearly 40% of large local health department staff need policy engagement training, an increasing need. This highlights opportunities to strengthen public health policy capacity by targeting training to specific workforce segments.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Health Policy
- Workforce Development
Background:
- Large local health departments (LHDs) serve diverse, high-need communities.
- LHDs are uniquely positioned to influence public health policy and practice.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate policy engagement as a training need in large LHDs using the 2024 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey.
- Identify gaps and opportunities to strengthen policy capacity within the public health workforce.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional analysis of 2024 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey data.
- Utilized descriptive statistics and weighted logistic regression on responses from 24,121 individuals in large LHDs (serving ≥250,000).
Main Results:
- Nearly 40% of staff in large LHDs reported a need for policy engagement training, an increase since 2021.
- Women, supervisors, and managers reported higher odds of needing policy engagement training.
- Staff with master's or doctoral degrees had lower odds of reporting this training need compared to bachelor's-level staff.
Conclusions:
- Large LHDs have significant potential to advance public health policy due to their community connections and scale.
- Targeted policy engagement training for specific workforce segments can strategically enhance policy capacity across the US public health sector.
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