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Dobbs v Jackson: Now Is the Time for Prospective Public Health Measurement

This entry is part 13 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

Now is the time to set up to measure the impact of Dobbs v Jackson Supreme Court ruling within health departments. The Dobbs v Jackson Supreme Court ruling has shaken the foundations of public health in the United States (US). While we here at the University of Minnesota are physically located in a state with strong statutory protections for access to

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Reflections on the Power of Public Health Education Data Visualizations

Building Pathways to Careers in Public Health
This entry is part 12 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

These new dashboards from the Center for Public Health Systems at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health shed light on federal administrative data about post-secondary education in the US. These days, everybody has got a dashboard. Whether used for public communication or as a means of business analytics, data visualizations are everywhere (as, it seems, are memes about

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Health Department Community Health Workers: The Greatest Potential for Improving Population Health

Building Pathways to Careers in Public Health
This entry is part 11 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

CHWs are quickly becoming recognized as critical to improving population health, which is where health departments are shifting their focus as they strive to achieve the strategies laid out in the Public Health 3.0 model. Community health workers (CHWs) are an umbrella term that include community health representatives, promotoras, outreach educators, community health representatives, peer health promoters, and peer health

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The Complexity of Public Health Finance

Building Pathways to Careers in Public Health
This entry is part 10 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

Financing is complex, involving many laws, market driving forces, available resources, and tradeoffs for policy makers—a short-term investment may have long-term impacts. There are many options to finance public services, each with their strengths and weaknesses.  Securing adequate and sustainable financing for public health services has been a recurring topic in the media lately. Still, it has been a persistent,

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Governmental Public Health and Its Centrality in the US Public Health System: An Overview

Building Pathways to Careers in Public Health
This entry is part 9 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

Relatively little of our national conversation on health is about public health, which is right in line with our spending on public health; less than 3% of that spending goes toward governmental public health, ie public spending through federal, state, and local agencies and services provided by them. This post is also available on the Region V Public Health Training

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Rural Public Health Systems Discourse – Ongoing Challenges, Few Solutions

This entry is part 8 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

Given the shortage of workers in today’s post-COVID economy, all LHDs—urban and rural—are facing workforce gaps and finding it hard to recruit staff. However, the challenges to rural LHDs are compounded by their being under-funded. Several years ago, when my friend had to be taken by air ambulance from North Dakota to Minneapolis to get prompt treatment for severe frost

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A System Within a System Within a System: Unraveling the Complexities of Public Health in the US

This entry is part 7 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

The Complexity of Public Health Public health is a mess of complex networks of relationships among partners who are working toward shared goals and ideals for the public’s health. The “mess” cannot be overstated, given the wide variation across the nation regarding public health authorities, services delivered, and the multitude of partners involved in this system of systems. Each partner

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Post-COVID Public Health Workforce Planning: Now Is the Time to Begin

This entry is part 6 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

Post-COVID recovery of the public health workforce should begin as soon as possible. These questions may help guide your planning. January 20, 2020, will forever be etched into history books as the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the United States. The country declared a public health emergency less than two weeks later. Over the next several weeks, almost everyone’s jobs

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It’s Been Quite a Week in Legislation for the Public Health Workforce

This entry is part 5 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

Legislation from Smith et al and Murray & Burr are so important because it recognizes that public health should be treated like other in-demand health professions like nursing and incent recruitment into education and workforce appropriately. I have a brother who is a generation younger than I am. In 2013, as a youngin’, he visited my partner and me in

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Pandemic Ethics: How We Think About the Rule of Rescue

This entry is part 56 of 65 in the series Wide World of Public Health Systems

How following the Rule of Rescue may challenge fairness and justice considerations when dealing with limited resources during a pandemic. This post originally appeared on the website for the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota and is reposted here with permission from the author. As a public health researcher, I am deeply invested in promoting and protecting equity. In disaster

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