670: ASTHO Profile Workforce Takeaways, Viral Hepatitis Goals

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, May 22, 2024. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

JP LEIDER: 

You need to be able to have something that represents who you are, that you have high-quality data that tells your story, that you can take to policymakers, and that you can talk about yourself and your peers. And that's what the profile does.

JOHNSON: 

Dr. JP Leiter is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He's talking about the ASTHO Profile. And what it reveals about the public health workforce.

LEIDER: 

With the stresses of the pandemic, we had a lot of turnover, but we also had a lot of hiring, just objectively a lot of people did get hired. But vacancies didn't move as much as you might think, even given all that tumult.

JOHNSON: 

Leider says since there was such an influx of one-time public health funding, the percentage of temporary and contract positions has increased.

LEIDER: 

And so very recently, agencies are responding like it's one-time by not mostly hiring permanent staff by mostly spending that on, assessments, some hiring some incentives, but the folks that they are hiring are generally temporary, contract, non-permanent positions. And so that's where that shift has kind of happened.

JOHNSON: 

Leider adds that tracking trends in the public health workforce is finally possible with the ASTHO Profile.

LEIDER: 

It's used all the time by policymakers, folks at CDC, and others to know what's going on within governmental public health at the state and territorial levels. And so that's kind of not to be underestimated. There's a reason it's a 10-pole and used a number of studies, reports and so on.

JOHNSON: 

A link to the ASTHO Profile is in the show notes.

It's been five years since the national viral hepatitis meeting took place in-person and Dr. Carolyn Wester, director of the CDC's is Division of Viral Hepatitis, says a lot has happened in that time.

CAROLYN WESTER: 

Specifically, we've worked with federal partners to establish a national viral hepatitis strategic plan that includes 2030 elimination goals, as well as 2025 incremental targets.

JOHNSON: 

Wester says the momentum is there to meet the 2030 elimination goal.

WESTER: 

This is a critical moment for us. We're just six years away from 2030, which is the time by which we've committed to reaching national viral hepatitis elimination goals. If we're going to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat, we need to accelerate our progress now.

JOHNSON: 

The CDC is doing its part by working with teams on the front lines to make the 2030 goal a reality.

WESTER: 

We're working with health departments to provide technical assistance, not only resource libraries with tools and guidance documents, but also virtual learning collaborative and peer-to peer-learning. Building trusted programs in these settings and serving disproportionately impacted populations is essential to our collective work.

JOHNSON: 

More information on the CDC viral hepatitis work is in the show notes.

Also this morning, if you're looking to learn how to communicate more effectively and through an equity lens then an upcoming ASTHO webinar is for you. The meeting will showcase a case study real examples and will leave you with a greater understanding of health equity lens and how public health practitioners can apply it to everyday communication. You can sign up by using the link in the show notes.

Finally this morning, stay up to date on everything in public health. When you sign up for ASTHO's Public Health Weekly email newsletter. The link is in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.