A People Service (part 3) Public Health's Future

DAILY BRIEFING March 4, 2005

RELATED STORIES
Bush administration wants to cut CDC funding (02/08/05)
Study calls for public health preparedness standards (01/13/05)


Senators try again to strengthen public health workforce
By David McGlincheymailto:McGlincheydmcglinchey@govexec.com

A group of senators are pushing for legislation that will promote public health students to enter the civil service.

On Thursday, Senators Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., introduced the 2005 Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act. Hagel and Durbin introduced similar legislation last year, but it stalled.

In his year-end report to constituents, Hagel identified public health staffing as a key area of concern. He said Nebraska is facing the largest wave of public health retirements in the country.
"This legislation aims to increase the pipeline of qualified public health workers ... by offering scholarships to students going into the public health field," Hagel said in a statement. "It also encourages current employees to stay in the public health field by providing loan repayments."

Hagel said there are "critical public health workforce shortages" that must be addressed "before it becomes a crisis."

The bill would authorize $35 million each year for public health scholarships and $195 million annually for loan repayments.

The bill received immediate support from Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. Public health advocacy groups also praised the lawmakers for their effort. Several experts warned that the nation's public health emergency preparedness could suffer if initiatives like this are not passed.

"The ability of the public health system to respond adequately to any situation depends on a well-trained public health workforce," said Richard A. Raymond, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. "States could lose up to 45 percent of their experienced workforce through retirement by the end of 2006. We need to ensure that there are enough people being trained to take their place."

"Public health is on the verge of a massive brain drain in its workforce. The impending mass retirement of baby boomer public health officials is a crisis in the making," said Shelley A. Hearne, executive director of Trust for America's Health. "Replacing this experienced workforce ... needs to be a top priority for the country in order to protect U.S. citizens from health threats ranging from bioterrorism to the obesity epidemic."

According to Hagel, the average age of the public health workforce is 47 - seven years older than the nation's average.



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Brief Commentary:
For those of us in the health non-profit sector, this could be an opportunity to build a pension plan after all?

Let's conduct an unscientific survey, raise your hand if you would jump to work for city, county, state, or federal offices addressing health care systems, policy and programs?

Accordingly, want to acknowledge the "foresight" of the supporters of the bill. Many of us in the non profit health sector arena have not given much thought or created pathways for those who will replace us as we push closer to retirement. Perhaps, there is magical thinking going on, the diseases we champion and its adverse impact on the populations we serve will vanish in due time (during your working life).