摘要：Objectives: We analyzed data from the TrainingFinder Real-time Affiliate Integrated Network (TRAIN), the most widely used public health workforce training system in the United States, to describe the public health workforce and characteristics of individual public health workers. Methods: We extracted self-reported demographic data of 405 095 learners registered in the TRAIN online system in 2012. Results: Mirroring the results of other public health workforce studies, TRAIN learners are disproportionately women, college educated, and White compared with the populations they serve. TRAIN learners live in every state and half of all zip codes, with a concentration in states whose public health departments are TRAIN affiliates. TRAIN learners’ median age is 46 years, and one third of TRAIN learners will reach retirement age in the next 10 years. Conclusions: TRAIN data provide a limited but useful profile of public health workers and highlight the utility and limitations of using TRAIN for future research. To paraphrase a common dictum in management, one can only manage what one can measure, and in the arena of public health, data on workers are surprisingly sparse. In evaluating the efficacy of public health systems, researchers currently rely on 3 levels of data: community, agency, and individual public health worker. Vital statistics, the US Census Bureau, and disease registries provide considerable data on the demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, and health measures of communities and populations at the state, county, and municipal level. Data gathered by public health professional organizations such as the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) profile individual state and local health departments at the agency level. Data in the third area, individual health workers, remain relatively rare and challenging to collect. In this area, the TrainingFinder Real-time Affiliate Integrated Network (TRAIN) offers some limited but unique insights. Structurally, governmental public health workers are divided among federal, state, and local agencies with large variations in the services offered, training provided, and jurisdictions served by these health workers. No single system currently provides the number of public health employees working in the United States or provides information on the composition and training levels of these employees. For more than a decade, many articles have described the needs, frustrations, and challenges involved in enumerating and describing the public health workforce. 1–4
