A core competency framework for healthcare workers to deliver basic public health service in primary healthcare...

Basic public health service (BPHS) in China is the most important policy to provide equal access to essential healthcare for all residents, but it lacks a core competency framework for healthcare workers (HCWs) to provide BPHS, which fails to provide theoretical support for the competency assessment and training. This study aims to establish a core competency framework for HCWs to deliver BPHS in China.

BPHS functions are first identified as the goal of competency enhancement for HCWs, literature research and job analysis are conducted to define the competencies needed to fulfill the functions, then a core competency framework is initially proposed and improved using two rounds of Delphi.

After several iterations among experts, a consensus was reached on the indicator framework for the functions of BPHS and core competencies of HCWs providing BPHS. The core function of BPHS in China consists of one overarching function (To achieve the equalization of BPHS and promote health equality) and eight sub-functions ("Residents' health literacy improvement" among others). The finalized core competency framework for HCWs consists of 3 areas (specialized knowledge, skills, and conception and values), 19 domains ("Public health and preventive medicine knowledge" among others), 60 subdomains ("Epidemiology and health statistics" among others), and 116 competencies.

The core functions of BPHS and the core competency framework for HCWs to provide BPHS are constructed. This framework could serve as a guide for structured training on HCWs to provide high quality of BPHS and to develop criteria for those HCWs' competencies assessment.