Formation

Short overview of pan-Canadian initiatives related to public health training capacity since the early 2000s

According to information gathered, in the aftermath of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, the National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health (Naylor Committee) reported that a thorough review of public health training programs was needed and that new entrants to the public health workforce would have to be appropriately qualified (Naylor & National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health, 2003). Following recommendatio…

This document identifies and analyzes 85 training initiatives (workshops, webinars, guides, courses, conferences) focused on the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach. It aims to provide a portrait of the training initiatives offered and to suggest ways to improve upon this offer, with a particular focus on the Canadian context. The report provides a brief quantitative analysis as well as an in-depth qualitative analysis of the following dimensions of the training corpus: objectives and competencies, training mode and pedagogical approaches, conditions that support or hinder HiAP implementation, benefits and limitations, implementation tools and principles, previous experiences with HiAP, as well as the historical context. This analysis revealed several patterns in terms of the content covered. In general, the training initiatives analyzed provide a comprehensive overview of the foundations of the approach and its implementation principles. They tend to emphasize a vision of HiAP f…

• The policy brief is a knowledge transfer tool that has increasingly been used in recent years as a way to inform or influence public policy decisions.
• Because policy briefs are designated by a variety of terms (e.g.: policy note, research snapshot, etc.) and prepared in various formats, it can be difficult to determine how to go about writing one. What exactly is it? What criteria should be met to produce a high quality document? Which writing guides are of interest?
• This document is intended to assist knowledge producers in writing a policy brief based on research evidence.
• The first two sections describe the characteristics of a policy brief, its components and the elements that should be considered to maximize its potential. The final section presents a selection of resources to guide readers who wish to pursue further knowledge.
• The information presented is based on the recommendations included in the guides reviewed (2008-2018), as w…

The underlying impetus of the occupational health framework is a desire to enact change. This tool aims to address the modernization challenges outlined in the Programme national de santé publique (MSSS, 2008) [Québec's updated public health program] and the Plan stratégique du Réseau de santé publique en santé au travail (MSSS, 2010) [the strategic plan of Québec's public health network in occupational health, and it offers a wide range of opportunities for organizational and professional development, including staffing, development of a joint training plan, personnel recruitment and assessment, career management, orientations for university programs, harmonization of practices, etc. Moreover, the use of the interdisciplinary professional situations of the RSPSAT as a blueprint for describing the competencies highlights the framework's collective nature and allows for implementation of a comprehensive competency development plan.

The competency framework development…

The Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) is a public health expertise and reference centre in Québec that engages in research, monitoring, training, knowledge translation, public policy development, and the production of scientific advisory reports. These are considered the organization's cross-cutting functions. Mastery of the scientific processes underlying these functions is essential to the improvement of the materials produced by the INSPQ and the services offered to its diverse clientele. Hence, it is of fundamental importance to begin by producing a comprehensive inventory of individual competencies linked to these processes.

To this end, the Vice-présidence aux affaires scientifiques (scientific affairs division) tasked a work committee with establishing a competency development plan for INSPQ staff engaged in carrying out the scientific processes underlying the cross-cutting functions.

This competency framework is the first step…

Environmental health is a rapidly evolving field, and people working in this field have to deal with increasingly complex situations. Many environmental health practitioners need to develop new professional practices and update their competencies continuously in order to adapt to the new realities in the field. A group of public health experts set out to develop this environmental health competency framework in order to give practitioners an opportunity to engage in a process of continuing education.

To provide a common language and approach that will optimize the success of interventions, all of the professionals in a multidisciplinary team are expected to develop certain competencies related to public health as well as environmental health. That, moreover, is the raison d'être of this competency framework, which is intended for all members of the multidisciplinary team, whether their specialization is in health or a complementary field.

The framework is comp…

When Québec's 2003–2012 National Public Health Program (Programme national de santé publique or PNSP) was updated in 2008, a report highlighted the growing complexity of public health action, particularly when the challenges of integrating the practice of public health in the care and services system at the local level were taken into account. Among the factors challenging the competencies of the actors in the field are the exercise of population-based responsibility arising from amendments to the Act Respecting Health Services and Social Services in 2003, the deployment of the PNSP at all levels of intervention, and the importance of engaging all actors to promote prevention and take action on the determinants of health.

The report highlighted significant limitations in this regard including the fragmentation of knowledge and practices, provision of variable and uncoordinated training, management methods often unsuitable for promoting networking, under-utiliza…

Subsequent to release of the updated Québec Public Health Program (QPHP), the Direction générale de la santé publique of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) made public its strategy for the development of public health research (Stratégie pour le développement de la recherche en santé publique, 2008). This strategy proposes guidelines based on, among other things, the results of a review of public health research in Québec (Bilan de la recherche en santé publique au Québec). One of these guidelines calls for strengthening of the capacity to use research results in the health and social services network. Among the priority actions mentioned is the development of various forms of partnership involving funding for the production of knowledge, such as knowledge syntheses, experimental projects or feasibility studies. Another priority is the implementation of effective knowledge translation strategies.

These guidelines are part of a broader move…

As part of its mission, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) has a mandate to promulgate and build on knowledge and expertise in the field of public health. Legally, the Institute is a recognized educational institution pursuant to section 7.6 of the Act to promote workplace skills development and recognition (R.S.Q., c. D-7.1). In connection with this mandate, the INSPQ has established the Skills Development unit under the Research, Training and Development Branch.

To ensure optimum consistency in skills development between the training activities designed for staff working in the Québec health system and the training needs existing in these populations, the INSPQ Skills Development unit considered it relevant to develop terms of reference for performing analyses of continuing education needs. The fact is that analysis of training needs is a step often skipped in the process of developing training activities. However, the needs analysis process is essen…