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Decoding Training Needs: Using Relevance and Exposure to Identify Training Needs in the Retail Food Regulatory Workforce
Lindsay Fahnestock, MPH, DrPH National Environmental Health Association California Baptist University Samantha Streuli, PhD Gagandeep Gill, MPH, DrPH Roseann DeVito, MPH, PMP Joetta DeFrancesco, MA Manjit Randhawa, MPH, MD David Dyjack, DrPH, CIH Rance Baker National Environmental Health Association
b>?r-/? Effective and consistent training approaches are necessary for capacity building in the environmental public health workforce, including individuals involved in retail food regulatory work. The retail food regulatory workforce can, however, lack standardized training, promotion, and retention practices. Additionally, workforce demographics suggest a high turnover rate in the near future that will require targeted training efforts to maintain food safety standards. We analyzed data from the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA)-Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Retail Food Program Training Needs Assessment to better understand workforce training needs overall and by job level. Using a 4-quadrant approach to plot the relevance of and exposure to validated retail food safety knowledge areas, we show the knowledge areas that need priority focus for workforce training. We demonstrate the importance of our approach and suggest that it can be applied to further assessment of training needs in the retail food regulatory workforce and beyond. Keywords: environmental public health, retail food, training, workforce
al., 2019). This concern is a particular one for EPH employees who are engaged in retail food regulatory work, which has been a tar- get of standardization e orts within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, 2022). As many previous needs assessment e orts have focused on public health as a whole or environmental public health at the state level, the National Environmental Health Associa- tion (NEHA) is leading e orts to bring the issue of workforce capacity needs specifically to the EPH sector across the U.S. (Bogaert et al., 2019; Reischl et al., 2008). NEHA is well posi- tioned to lead these e orts, as the organization has been supporting the EPH workforce with opportunities for training, collaboration, and professionalization since 1937. NEHA is dedi- cated to advancing EPH while collaborating with professionals, policymakers, research- ers, and partners to address critical issues and works with regulatory agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion (CDC), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), U.S. Environmen- tal Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), U.S. Depart- ment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and FDA to ensure high standards of
Introduction Training public health professionals e - ciently and e ectively is imperative to build a strong workforce capacity. Over the last few decades, enforcing and strengthening the public health workforce through specific competencies have been priorities (Potter et al., 2000). Environmental public health (EPH) workers make up the largest group in the public health workforce, not includ- ing health administration and public health nurses (Heidari et al., 2019). The public health workforce has experienced a 15% decrease over the last decade, highlighting the importance of understanding workforce training needs to enhance and grow the work-
force (Eger & House, 2021). As an essential part of the broader public health workforce, the EPH workforce is also at risk for declining numbers and capacity (Gerding et al., 2019). Previous qualitative research has revealed some general concerns regarding the EPH workforce, including standardization of workforce development opportunities, strong leadership development, enhanced col- laboration e orts, and enhanced technology and data capabilities (Gerding et al., 2020). The concept of standardization of workforce development opportunities is a pressing area of concern because educational and training programs and environmental health regula- tions vary greatly across the U.S. (Gerding et
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Volume 87 • Number 1
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