American Public Health Association

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Public Health Leadership Initiative for Emergency
Response (PHLIER)A case-based leadership
training program

• American Public Health Association
• Annual Meeting, 2006, Boston, MA
• Session 138342

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Collaborators

• UMDNJ School of Public HealthNJCPHP/PHLIER
• Drew A. Harris, DPM, MPH
• Rebecca E. Baron, BA
• Concetta C. Polonsky, BS, CHES
• Mitchel Rosen, MS
• Marcia M. Sass, DSc

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Goals

• Recognize why leadership training and development
  should be incorporated in public health emergency
  preparedness programs.
• Describe mechanisms for training public health
  workers to function during a public health
  emergency.
• Discuss the benefits of a multi-session
  fellowship program in fostering mentorship.

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Program development branding

• Is Public Health Leadership Different?

• All public health workers are leaders
• Stakeholder relationships (collaborative
  leadership)
• Smaller organizations
• Creative/flexible Thinking
• Emergency response

AP Photo
PH Image Library
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Program development branding

• Leadership Training

• Leadership is a Trait and a Process.
• Didactic??
• Team training
• Experiential training
• Repetitive

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Program development branding

• Program Principles

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Program development branding

• Challenges

• Time
• Staffing (backfilling)
• Skills training
• Leadership

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Program development branding

• PHLIER Goals

• Foster the next generation of public health
  leaders
• Promote excellence in leadership
• Explore leadership responses to public heath
  emergencies and
• Encourage mentoring amongst public health leaders
  of varying experience.

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Program development branding

• Steering Committee

• Broad-based
• Practice-oriented
• Connectors
• Stakeholders

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Program development branding

• Steering Committee - Role

• Candidate selection
• Review cases
• Oversee evaluation
• Develop curriculum
• Recruitment outreach

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Program development branding

• Branding

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Program development branding

• Brand Coherence

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Program development branding

• Brand Coherence

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Diversity

• Main goal
• Diversity defined
• Geography
• Gender
• Experience
• Professional title
• Type of agency
• Race/ethnicity

Selection Process
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Selection Criteria

• Applicant will contribute to the PHLIER
  Fellowship.
• Applicants skills and knowledge sets him/her
  apart.
• PHLIER will be used in the applicants practices.

Selection Process
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Application

• Included the necessary relevant information
• Name, contact information, title, agency
• Other key information
• Professional licenses held
• Memberships in public health organizations
• Number of years in public health
• Number of years at current agency
• A resume/CV

Selection Process
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Commitment Form

• Commitment forms required
• Signed by both applicant and their supervisor
• Commitment of time
• Increases value of program

Selection Process
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Balanced Class

• Twenty fellows
• Represented different roles and agencies within
  New Jersey public health
• Ranged in 1 year of experience to 25

Selection Process
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Benefits of utilizing virtual community

• A sense of reality within a virtual community
• No home field advantage
• Team building
• Collaborative thinking
• Opportunity to think outside of the box

Virtual community
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Phlierton looks like New Jersey

• Reflective of various NJ municipalities
• Health status reflective of NJ
• Diverse communities and governmental structures
• Public health infrastructure
• Geographically designed as the platform for the
  case studies

Virtual community
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Verisimilitude

• Phlierton Region back-story
• GIS map with geographic markers
• Newsletter
• Case Studies with pictures and role play

Virtual community
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Case studies

• Why cases?

CASES/EXERCISES/TABLETOPS
SPECIALIZATION
Base-level training
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Building a Health Department

• First case
• Participants decide
• Regional, county, municipal, LINCS
• Autonomous vs. Advisory Boards
• Infrastructure (i.e. number of employees,
  departments/divisions, administration)
• Budget

Case studies
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Building a Health Department

• Basis of all other cases
• Work with the department they create

Case studies
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Emergency cases

• Food-borne outbreak
• Lassa Fever retrospective
• Hurricane Phritz
• Influenza Pandemic
• Fellow presentations

Case studies
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PHLIER Evaluation

• When should program evaluation begin?
• As the program is developed

Evaluation
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PHLIER Evaluation

• On what should it be based?
• ...Programs overall goals and objectives
• ... Incorporate competencies

Evaluation
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Evaluation of PHLIER

• CDC Requirement
• Demonstrate outcomes
• short-term
• intermediate
• longer-term outcomes

Evaluation
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Evaluation Rubric

• Pre-program assessment (preparedness
  competencies)
• Session-specific evaluations
• Exit interviews
• Post-session evaluation (6 months)

Evaluation
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PHLIER Logic Model
Evaluation
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1. Pre-assessment results

• Competency-based
• Learned - Weak in hazards preparedness
  competencies

Evaluation
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2. Session-specific evaluations

• Objective
• Competency-based
• Findings used to plan future sessions

Evaluation
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3. Exit interviews

• Strengths, limitations, and value of the program
  to themselves and others
• Feedback session information used for new
  PHLIER program

Evaluation
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4. Post-session assessment

• Six-months follow-up and beyond to obtain
  feedback and assess leadership skills
• Re-do pre-assessment

Evaluation
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Summary

• Public leadership training needed
• Build a brand identity
• Create a safe virtual community
• Use realistic cases
• Incorporate evaluation from beginning