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APHA Continuing Education Institutes Cover Range of Public Health Topics

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 September 2005, 03:00 CDT

PUBLIC HEALTH professionals who want to brush up on their epidemiology, emergency response or other public health skills are invited to take part in APHA's Continuing Education Institute sessions this November.

APHA is offering about 20 institutes this year, covering topics such as genomics, public health informatics and mental health services for children and teens. The half or fullday institutes, which will be held Nov. 5-6 in New Orleans in conjunction with APHA's 133rd Annual Meeting, provide an in-depth look at public health topics while allowing participants to earn continuing education credits.

Many of the institutes will focus on providing health professionals with skills they can use in their everyday work. Of particular interest this year are sessions on health literacy, which will help participants meet Healthy People 2010 goals on the issue, and public health law, which will arm participants with the knowledge they need to handle the legal aspects of disease outbreaks, such as mass vaccinations and quarantines. The annual institute on "Epi for Non-Epidemiologists" is a popular draw, attracting many participants each year.

Participants in APHA's 2004 Continuing Education Institutes

Professionals who work within local public health agencies will find value in an all-day preparedness session on Saturday. The session will provide health workers with "the tools to set goals, plan for an exercise and use evaluation to improve planning and performance," according to Kristine Gebbie, RN, DrPH, an associate professor of nursing at Columbia University and a presenter at the session.

"This...has become a part of basic public health, and every agency should have at least one staff member who is comfortable with the whole process," Gebbie told The Nation's Health.

Among the other institutes are those focusing on:

* evidence-based practice, which ties into the Annual Meeting theme;

* the relationship between public health and community design;

* assessment and improvement of mental health services;

* how to get published in scientific journals; and

* the urban environment and its impact on population health.

Three of this year's institutes - focusing on item response theory, spatial epidemiology and health outcomes survey research will be presented in conjunction with the APHA Epidemiology and Statistics sections and the American Statistical Association.

All of the institutes offer continuing education credits for participants, including continuing medical education credits, continuing education in nursing credits, and contact hours in health education for certified health education specialists. Participants will be able to evaluate the institutes on site in New Orleans and print their certificates or complete their evaluations once they return home.

A full list of institutes is available online at .

Health professionals can sign up for the APHA Continuing Education Institutes via the APHA Annual Meeting registration form, which is online at . Participants are encouraged to register as soon as possible, as some sessions fill up early.

Health professionals do not have to be registered for the APHA Annual Meeting to take part in the institutes.

For information, e-mail or call (202) 777- 2521.

- Michele Late

Copyright American Public Health Association Sep 2005

Source: Nation's Health, The

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