NEHA July/August 2025 Journal of Environmental Health

ADVANCEMENT OF THE PRACTICE

Conclusion Although the saying “if you’ve seen one local health department, you’ve seen one local health department” stems from the idea that local health department activities should meet the unique needs of the communities they serve, it discounts the unifying values and functions that define EPH as a profes- sion. Important commonalities exist across EPH departments and programs that value a strong basic education, certification for key program areas, and flexibility for sta to work across programs. These commonalities pro-

vide a basis for guidelines that can be widely accepted and scalable to the size and setting of EPH departments. From our study, we identified several implications for policy and practice: • EPH sta perform duties across multiple program areas. • EPH sta and managers generally agreed on scalable standards for education, certifi- cation, and workload expectations. • Requiring a bachelor’s degree in a field of science with REHS/RS certification pro- vides flexibility for EPH sta and programs.

• Workload standards for specific programs should account for duties performed in other EPH programs.

Acknowledgment: The authors acknowledge the support of the NEHA Board of Directors.

Corresponding Author: Gina Bare, RN, Direc- tor, Program and Partnership Development, National Environmental Health Association, 1400 South Colorado Boulevard, Suite 325, Denver, CO 80222–9998. Email: gbare@neha.org

References

Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. (2021). 2021 epide- miology capacity assessment . https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.cste.org/ resource/resmgr/eca/2021_ECA_Report_FINAL.pdf Food and Drug Administration. (2024). Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards—November 2024 . https:// www.fda.gov/food/voluntary-national-retail-food-regulatory-pro gram-standards/voluntary-national-retail-food-regulatory-pro gram-standards-november-2024 Gerding, J.A., Brooks, B.W., Landeen, E., Whitehead, S., Kelly, K.R., Allen, A., Banaszynski, D., Dorshorst, M., Drager, L., Eshenaur, T., Freund, J., Inman, A., Long, S., Maloney, J., McKeever, T., Pig- man, T., Rising, N., Scanlan, S., Scott, J., . . . Sarisky, J. (2020). Identifying needs for advancing the profession and workforce in environmental health. American Journal of Public Health , 110 (3), 288–294. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305441 Gerding, J.A., Landeen, E., Kelly, K.R., Whitehead, S., Dyjack, D.T., Sarisky, J., & Brooks, B.W. (2019). Uncovering environmental health: An initial assessment of the profession’s health department workforce and practice. Journal of Environmental Health , 81 (10), 24–33. Kim, T.N., Karnik, H., Leider, J.P., & Hedberg, C.W. (2023). Environ- mental health department food safety programs structure project report [Internal report]. National Environmental Health Association. Leider, J.P., Castrucci, B.C., Robins, M., Hare Bork, R., Fraser, M.R., Savoia, E., Piltch-Loeb, R., & Koh, H.K. (2023). The exodus of state and local public health employees: Separations started before and continued throughout COVID-19. Health Aairs , 42 (3), 338– 348. https://doi.org/10.1377/hltha .2022.01251 Leider, J.P., McCullough, J.M., Singh, S.R., Sieger, A., Robins, M., Fisher, J.S., Kuehnert, P., & Castrucci, B.C. (2023). Sta®ng up

and sustaining the public health workforce. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice , 29 (3), e100–e107. https://doi. org/10.1097/PHH.0000000000001614 Meit, M., Knudson, A., Dickman, I., Brown, A., Hernandez, N., & Kronstadt, J. (2013). An examination of public health financing in the United States . NORC at the University of Chicago. https://norc. org/content/dam/norc-org/pdfs/PH%20Financing%20Report%20 -%20Final.pdf National Association of County and City Health O®cials. (2011). Local public health workforce benchmarks . https://www.naccho.org/ uploads/downloadable-resources/local-public-health-workforce- sta®ng-benchmarks.pdf National Association of County and City Health O®cials. (2024). 2022 national profile of local health departments . https://www.nac cho.org/uploads/downloadable-resources/NACCHO-2022-Pro file-Report.pdf National Environmental Health Association. (2013). A ssessment of foodborne illness outbreak response and investigation capacity in US environmental health food safety regulatory programs . https:// neha.org/sites/default/files/publications/NEHA-Assessment-Food borne-Illness-Outbreak-Response.pdf National Environmental Health Partnership Council. (2017). Envi- ronmental health playbook: Investing in a robust environmental health system . https://nchh.org/resource-library/nehpc_environ mental-health-playbook_investing-in-a-robust-environmental- health-system.pdf Public Health Accreditation Board. (2022). The foundational pub- lic health services . https://phaboard.org/center-for-innovation/public- health-frameworks/the-foundational-public-health-services

We support your continuing education (CE) needs by providing educational opportunities to complement your credentials and lifelong learning. We have improved and expanded our virtual CE oerings, which are available in a variety of formats and free to members. Learn more at www.neha.org/continuing-education.

Did You Know?

Volume 88 • Number 1