Introduction by Croakey: Public health educator Bethany Howard and health marketing and communications professional Kirsten Marks from Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine recently guest-posted at Croakey’s curated X/Twitter account, @WePublicHealth.
During the week, Howard and Marks shared insights about public health careers using the hashtag, #WePublicHealthCareers, highlighting the varied and diverse pathways to a career in public health.
The week coincided with the launch of their new podcast, Public Health Insiders, the podcast that “gives you the inside scoop on what it is like to work in public health”. Keep an eye out for weekly episodes here.
Bethany Howard and Kirsten Marks write:
We are public health educator Bethany Howard and health marketing and communications professional Kirsten Marks, from Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. We’re here talking all about public health careers and workforce this week.
Drumroll…launching Public Health Insiders
As well as sharing her career journey, in episode one Drieberg discussed the importance of interpersonal communication skills in the field.
Listen to episode one of the Public Health Insiders podcast here.
Vital communication skills
“Soft skills” including being able to interact with strangers confidently and adeptly are vital, not just to help young jobseekers find a role, but in conducting public health activities.
How can we design or test successful health programs without interacting with people?
How can we share results effectively, or counter misinformation without the ability to communicate well?
It’s critically important these skills are embedded in the public health curriculum.
Brain drain
Today, we’ll be focusing on regional health and public health workforce and training issues, drawn from this incredible #WHSMelbourne2024 [World Health Summit Regional Meeting] session, which is freely available to view here.
Zooming in on the South Pacific with Dr William May from Fiji National University, Fiji’s public health system has seen more than 2,300 resignations in the past five years.
That’s a year’s worth of medical/health worker enrolments at Fiji National University.
44 percent of Fiji’s public system nurses have resigned over the last five years. Some are lost to private employers, but many to Australia and New Zealand where wages are higher.
If all resignations ceased immediately, it would take longer than six years for Fiji to replace nursing workforce to where it was pre-COVID. And that still wouldn’t account for years of experience held by those now lost to that workforce.
Some suggested solutions: redistribution of tasks among health workers, revised workforce planning/training, reviewing finances and benefits and making more attractive work environments.
But a vital part of the solution is RECIPROCITY and ETHICAL RECRUITMENT of health workers by high-income nations.
Key reading: World Health Organization’s Bilateral agreements on health worker migration and mobility
Professor Rebecca Ivers, from University of New South Wales said: our regional health workforce is facing challenges from emigration-driven brain drain, international variation in wages, and a need for flexible skills mix to match rapidly changing health needs.
We need to build a health workforce that can meet challenges arising from ageing populations, increases in NCDs and health threats from climate change.
While it’s hard enough to gauge our health workforce, our public health workforce is particularly poorly documented. Who are our epidemiologists, our data analysts, health promotions experts, health communicators?
Competencies
Dr Agustin Kusumayati, President of the Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health said: a major challenge for our region’s public health workforce is a lack of standardised competencies that can help employers understand the skills BPH [Bachelor of Public Health] graduates hold.
Defining values
In episode two of the Public Health Insiders podcast, we hear Pearson’s take on how honours in public health is a brilliant, heavily-supported entry into real-world research.
Pearson felt stressed by not having a tangible job title at the end of her study, like ‘nurse’ or ‘doctor’. She’s come to learn that what’s important to her now is defining her personal values and finding roles that align with those.
Public health is health on a grand scale, and there ain’t much grander than your research being cited upon the launch of a US$10 million Bloomberg Philanthropies grant to improve cycling infrastructure around.
Robust data infrastructure
Tertiary training can be expensive. She shares an example of a partnership between University of NSW, Department of Foreign Affairs, The George Institute and the Fiji Government to strengthen community workforce.
As a result, Fiji’s community health worker program is being revised on an evidence-based co-design process.
Reinforcing a now-familiar theme, Rohina stresses that Australia/New Zealand must adhere to ethical recruitment of foreign health workers to ensure source countries are adequately resourced themselves.
She wraps up highlighting the importance of robust public health data infrastructure and strong workforces to support them. A great example is the Data for Health Initiative partnership between Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Australian Government.
The workforce session is just one of 46 incredible sessions from the recent World Health Summit Regional Meeting hosted in Naarm/Melbourne, all of which are freely available to view here.
The future of public health
We recently hosted #WHSMelbourne2024 and were thrilled to bring along some medical and health students as volunteers. They produced some wonderful video content, showcasing what the students of today want to know about public health and their views.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on health workforce matters
