264: New PH Job Website

ROBERT JOHNSON:

This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, September 16th, 2022. I'm Robert Johnson.

Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

JOANNE PEARSOL:

The site features career professional video highlights and job opportunities that we hope will inspire a new generation of public health workers.

JOHNSON:

ASTHO's director of workforce development Joanne Pearsol talking about publichealthcareers.org, a new website helping people and organizations connect.

PEARSOL:

So, we've heard from members about challenges that they're facing with recruiting new employees. Some of those have to do with state caps on number of employees that are permitted to hire. Sometimes they cite a lack of qualified candidates, competition from other sectors, and sometimes restrictive or limiting state practices that slow the process down and actually cause candidates to look elsewhere.

JOHNSON:

Pearsol says the goal right now is to add more job listings to the website.

PEARSOL:

So, right now we're on a push to get governmental public health agencies to post open positions to the site. We've been doing a lot of communication with our members and partners to make that happen. Our governmental public health agencies and our partners can post an unlimited number of jobs at no cost using a promo code that we give them.

JOHNSON:

Pearsol says the site is online, but will debut officially in a few weeks.

PEARSOL:

So, it's my hope that this publichealthcareers.org site becomes a one-stop shop for employers and potential candidates to find their dream job and get their career that they'll be in for the rest of their lives, make it easier for the agencies to post and find employees, and to really get those candidates in roles that they'll find fulfilling for the rest of their career.

JOHNSON:

You can visit the site using the link in the show notes.

Public health organizations want Congress to support a White House proposal that would provide $4.5 billion in emergency funding for the nation's monkeypox response.

ASTHO CEO Mike Fraser joined an online news conference this week to discuss the proposal. He says using obligated COVID money isn't the best approach

MICHAEL FRASER:

Monkeypox is a new response. There's a degree of flexibility that states have been given by their federal project officers, but they're not going to meet the needs of states, certainly for the medium- and long-term. And there's a number of issues related to using COVID funding for monkeypox that are both statutory, but also in the federal programs themselves in the way that states have to administer them.

JOHNSON:

Lori Freeman is CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

LORI FREEMAN:

At the local level, the monkeypox response is on top of the COVID work, as well as other more localized challenges like the polio reemergence, wildfires, floods, with close to 22,000 cases now in this country and every state and many jurisdictions facing cases. We must act now to address this outbreak and stop it.

JOHNSON:

Dr. Cesar Arias practices medicine in Houston, and he serves on the board of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

CESAR ARIAS:

Despite some significant improvements in testing capacity, we still hear far too many examples and stories of my patients that struggle to get access to testing either because there is no enough providers that can't do this, or because they can't afford it. We need to ensure that testing is made available with zero cost in chair, in particularly these underserved areas that are seeing these patients regardless of insurance status.

JOHNSON:

Also this morning: only 19 of 41 state and territorial health agencies responding to a survey last year said they had a climate and health program in place at the time. The finding is among those reported in an article published in the American Journal of Public Health. You can read the article about how agencies are dealing with the public health impacts of climate change using the link in the show notes.

Finally today: the first class of scholars in ASTHO's Diverse Executives Leading in Public Health program graduated this week. Sixteen professionals completed the 10-month course. Half of them have received promotions made possible by skills they learned in the program. ASTHO has published a 60-page, full-color digital magazine with details of the program and stories about the graduates. You can read it using the link in the show notes.

That'll do it for today's newscast. We're back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information.

I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great weekend.