A Review of Global Health Competencies for Postgraduate Public Health Education

Abstract

During the last decade, the literature about global health has grown exponentially. Academic institutions are also exploring the scope of their public health educational programs to meet the demand for a global health professional. This has become more relevant in the context of the sustainable development goals. There have been attempts to describe global health competencies for specific professional groups. The focus of these competencies has been variable with a variety of different themes being described ranging from globalization and health care, analysis and program management, as well as equity and capacity strengthening. This review aims to describe global health competencies and attempts to distill common competency domains to assist in curriculum development and integration in postgraduate public health education programs. A literature search was conducted using relevant keywords with a focus on public health education. This resulted in identification of 13 articles that described global health competencies. All these articles were published between 2005 and 2015 with six from the USA, two each from Canada and Australia, and one each from UK, Europe, and Americas. A range of methods used to describe competency domains included literature review, interviews with experts and employers, surveys of staff and students, and description or review of an academic program. Eleven competency domains were distilled from the selected articles. These competency domains primarily referred to three main aspects, one that focuses on burden of disease and the determinants of health. A second set focuses on core public health skills including policy development, analysis, and program management. Another set of competency domains could be classified as “soft skills” and includes collaboration, partnering, communication, professionalism, capacity building, and political awareness. This review presents the landscape of defined global health competencies for postgraduate public health education. The discussion about use of “global health,” “international health,” and “global public health” will continue, and academic institutions need to explore ways to integrate these competencies in postgraduate public health programs. This is critical in the post-MDG era that we prepare global public health workforce for the challenges of improving health of the “global” population in the context of sustainable development goals.

Implementation of global health competencies: A scoping review on target audiences, levels, and pedagogy and assessment strategies

“…The demand and need to define success and guide successful training in global health has led many groups, institutions, and professional societies to define sets of global health competencies. Competency-based education aims to move away from traditional learning assessment approaches-such as counting hours spent learning-to capturing the "knowledge, skills, and attitudes [or abilities] required for an acceptable level of practice" [11]. This approach opens up opportunities to focus on job performance, as well as allowing for the definition of levels of skill for assessment of progress [12,13].…”

Demand for global health training and experiences among emergency medicine trainees in Australia and New Zealand

“…Doctors working in GH require skills, knowledge and attributes that are not readily acquired through a conventional medical education. GH training (GHT) addresses this gap by equipping health professionals with the competencies necessary for practice in international, resource‐limited (RL) and cross‐cultural environments …”

“…GH training (GHT) addresses this gap by equipping health professionals with the competencies necessary for practice in international, resource-limited (RL) and cross-cultural environments. [2][3][4] Despite international efforts to increase the visibility of GH in medical education programmes, [5][6][7] there is limited integration of GHT with postgraduate medical education (PGME) in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). 8 By way of contrast, trainees in North America have the option of participating in domestic GH teaching programmes, rotations in RL environments in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) and post-specialisation fellowships in GH.…”

Educating the Public Health Workforce: A Scoping Review

“…Diversity also prevails across and within countries ( 13 ), with different organizations responsible for public health education and training. Some education and competency frameworks are linked to professional standards ( 14 ); others to accrediting agencies ( 15 ). Some organizations have recently come together to promote coordination of competencies across disciplines ( 16 ) and in support of a global perspective for international education and collective action on the ground ( 17 ).…”