摘要：Twenty-first century advances have significantly altered the functions of public health professionals, resulting in a need for advanced level training in community health leadership and practice-oriented research without interruption of professional careers. We present an example of an innovative Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program developed at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. This program incorporates 21st century public health competencies within a competency-based curricular model, delivered in a hybrid format (fall or spring online delivery and a 1-week face-to-face summer institute) in collaboration between academic and practice-based public health professionals at local and national levels. This revised competency-based program is an example of how to meet the needs of the 21st century public health practitioners while maintaining their connections to the practice world. Twenty-first century advances have significantly altered the functions of public health professionals, who began as a workforce consisting of physicians, nurses, and biological scientists employed to address public health needs, such as sanitation, infectious diseases, immunizations, and food and water quality. 1 However, current public health challenges include environmental disasters, health equity, technological advances, effects of globalization, and the impacts of an aging and increasingly diverse society. 1 As a result, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century , noted that contemporary training needs should include informatics, genomics, communication, cultural competence, community-based participatory research, global health, policy and law, and public health ethics. 1 A baseline assessment of 33 accredited schools of public health conducted by the Association of Schools of Public Health (now known as the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health [ASPPH]) revealed that the majority of Masters of Public Health (MPH) training programs addressed these training needs, with the exception of genomics, informatics, and community-based participatory research. 2 However, this report did not focus on the training needs associated with a Doctorate of Public Health (DrPH)—an advanced-level public health degree geared for practitioners who work in a variety of local, state, federal, and international settings. 3 The IOM also recommended that advanced training in public health include community health leadership and practice-oriented research, a flexible competency-based educational program that addresses the learning styles of mid-level public health practitioners, new e-learning technologies via hybrid delivery, and a curriculum that emphasizes practice-oriented education. 1 To address these advanced training needs, ASPPH developed a framework, the DrPH Core Competency Model, which is defined by consensus-driven competencies and grounded in leadership and practice-based research skills. 3 The DrPH Core Competency Model outlined seven competency domains essential to advanced DrPH training: leadership, advocacy, communication, management, community and cultural orientation, professionalism and ethics, and critical analysis. 3 Because the roles and responsibilities of practitioners vary, the DrPH Core Competency Model places greater emphasis on evidence-based practice and leadership pertaining to public health assessment, policy development, and assurance. 3 As a result of recommendations presented by the IOM report and the DrPH Core Competency Model, there is an opportunity to develop innovative methods for training advanced-level public health professionals. We present an example of an innovative DrPH program of study at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public Health that incorporates 21st-century advanced public health competencies with an outcomes- and competency-based curricular model delivered in a hybrid format in collaboration with local and national public health professionals.
