A Capacity Mapping Approach to Public Health Training Resources

Abstract

The capacity mapping approach can be used to identify existing community resources. As part of this approach, inventories are used to provide information for a capacity map. The authors describe the development of two inventories and a capacity map for public health workforce development. For the first inventory, the authors contacted 754 institutions to determine available public health training resources; 191 institutions reported resources, including 126 directly providing distance learning technologies and courses or modules addressing important competency domains. Distance learning technologies included video conferencing facilities (61%) and satellite download facilities (50%). For the second inventory, the authors obtained information on 129 distance-accessible public health training modules. The workforce development capacity map produced from these two inventories revealed substantial resources available for use by individuals or agencies wishing to improve training in public health competencies.

The development and pilot testing of a rapid assessment tool to improve local public health system capacity in Australia

“…Dato et al describe capacity mapping as "a strategy to find untapped and unrecognized resources" [ 27 ]. They suggest it as an approach for identifying public health training resources, given what they see as a mismatch between the need for public health training and the lack of funding [ 27 ].…”

“…Dato et al describe capacity mapping as "a strategy to find untapped and unrecognized resources" [ 27 ]. They suggest it as an approach for identifying public health training resources, given what they see as a mismatch between the need for public health training and the lack of funding [ 27 ]. Work by Hughes [ 28 , 29 ] on workforce capacity in public health nutrition and by Scanlon and Raphael [ 30 ] in mental health illustrate the interrelated nature of different areas and levels when attempting to map capacity.…”

On Academics: Developing Competencies for a Graduate School Curriculum in International Health

“…4 Dato and colleagues did provide a concept for helping discern our own capacity in course offerings to meet the challenge of global health training. 5 And Drain and colleagues have published a call for more training and opportunities in global health, especially for medical students. 6 The purpose of this article is to report on how we developed international health competencies to guide our curriculum development.…”