Tracking Public Health Workforce Retention

Observations From CDC’s Public Health Associate Program

Bibliographic Data

ID11035041
AuthorsCorinne J Wigington (Corinne J. Wigington is with Cherokee Nation Businesses supporting the Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. Laura T. Colman, Robyn K. Sobelson, and Andrea C. Young are with the Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.), Laura T Colman (0000-0003-3566-2373, Corinne J. Wigington is with Cherokee Nation Businesses supporting the Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. Laura T. Colman, Robyn K. Sobelson, and Andrea C. Young are with the Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.), Robyn K Sobelson (Corinne J. Wigington is with Cherokee Nation Businesses supporting the Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. Laura T. Colman, Robyn K. Sobelson, and Andrea C. Young are with the Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.), Andrea Young (0000-0002-4207-9605, Office of Tribal Affairs and Strategic Alliances), Andrea C Young (0000-0003-3176-1729, Corinne J. Wigington is with Cherokee Nation Businesses supporting the Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. Laura T. Colman, Robyn K. Sobelson, and Andrea C. Young are with the Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
Year2019
Volume109
Issue9
Pages1202-1204
Publication date2019-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-0036 • E-ISSN: 1541-0048
PublisherAmerican Public Health Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2105/ajph.2019.305156
PMID31318602
OpenAlexW2963303813
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited7

Objectives. To describe the career trajectories of 1 cohort of US Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) alumni over 3 years since completing PHAP. Methods. We distributed a Web-based survey at 3 time points between 2014 and 2017 (response rate = 76%). We calculated descriptive statistics in SPSS. Results. At all time points, most alumni were employed. Of those, the percentage employed in public health was 100% at program completion, 86% at year 1, and 68% at year 3. Conclusions. Most alumni were employed in public health jobs at each time point. At the 3-year mark, approximately a third of the alumni had left public health employment, which is in line with documented rates of turnover within the broader public health workforce. Public Health Implications. Service learning programs like PHAP are effective at recruiting early career professionals into public health. The extent to which PHAP is effective at retaining workers in public health after the program appears most promising immediately following the program or in the short term after the program concludes. The extent to which workers are retained in the longer term requires further study

Descriptive statistics · End point · Health care · Health human resources · Political science · Public health · Statistics · Tracking (education) · Workforce · Agriculture and Farm Safety · Computer Science · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Public Health Policies and Education · Zoonotic diseases and public health · Gerontology

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