ADVANCEMENT OF THE PRACTICE
Currently, the list of accredited programs and schools from the Council on Educa- tion for Public Health includes no accred- ited public health program or school in the U.S. that oers specialized training in children’s environmental health. The children’s environmental health compe- tencies meet this gap in training by pro- viding public health students with a list of abilities needed to be competent in this field. Interested students could use these competencies to seek formal and infor- mal experiences as well as supplementary training within and outside their public health program to complete their train- ing in children’s environmental health. While this approach relies on students to be self-motivated to seek this training, these competencies serve as an accessible tool and short-term solution to building the children’s environmental health work- force through formal training programs. Organizational-level change to incorpo- rate children’s environmental health is beyond the scope of this article. B.Guide public health professionals who want to integrate children’s environmen- tal health into their practice. There is interest within the maternal and child health and the environmental health professional communities of the Ameri- can Public Health Association to integrate children’s environmental health into their practice. This interest is a result of rec- ognizing the need to consider children’s vulnerabilities and environmental factors in policies, research, and interventions to protect and improve the well-being of children. Therefore, these environmental health competencies could help public health professionals in related fields who are interested in transitioning or increas- ing their capacity in this field. Similar to students in public health programs, public health professionals can use these com- petencies to guide their experiences and
meet additional training needs in children’s environmental health. C.Assist potential employers regarding what to expect of a person who is trained in chil- dren’s environmental health. To build the children’s environmental health workforce, there needs to be a clear workforce demand. We encourage employ- ers to incorporate these competencies as they write job descriptions so that job descriptions are clear on the expectations for candidates. We also encourage employ- ers who are interested in continuing to build the capacity of their employees to integrate these competencies into in-house training opportunities. In-house training opportunities could help current and pro- spective employees achieve children’s envi- ronmental health abilities and create non- formal training experiences for employees. D.Provide faculty who wish to prepare stu- dents for careers in children’s environmen- tal health with competencies to help them structure suitable learning experiences. Sometimes faculty and degree programs have the opportunity to incorporate chil- dren’s environmental health capacity-build- ing experiences into their lesson or degree plans and can do so with minimal eort and resources. For example, faculty could add extra steps to their assignments to help students practice presenting children’s envi- ronmental health-related information to dif- ferent audiences, or in many forms, includ- ing traditional and nontraditional forms of media and briefing papers. Faculty could also ask students to focus on children’s envi- ronmental health topics when doing data analysis and literature reviews or evaluat- ing the impacts on children’s health and the environment from proposed projects, plans, or policies. For experiences outside the classroom, these competencies can be used as a foundation for creating learning expe- riences. We encourage faculty and degree programs to use the children’s environ-
mental health competencies as the basis for developing these structural learning experi- ences so that the abilities learned translate into the workforce. Future Implications The American Public Health Association (2017) called for children’s environmen- tal health training of professionals who care for children as a way to reduce associ- ated risks (i.e., from climate change) and maximize benefits from accessing healthy natural environments (Action Step #14 in the policy statement). The 12 competencies represent first steps toward developing a for- mal children’s environmental health training for public health professionals. As the field grows, there could be a need to develop cer- tification of children’s environmental health specialists through a reputable organization such as the National Environmental Health Association. While the work group actively continues to focus on this goal, we encourage public health training programs, especially programs in institutes of higher learning, to consider incorporating these competencies into their environmental health and maternal and child health programs. Acknowledgements: We thank Alexander Ufelle and Bob Weisberg, members of the Chil- dren’s Environmental Health Curriculum work group, for their contributions and feedback on the presented competencies. We appreciate the support and feedback from the members of the Children’s Environmental Health Com- mittee of the Environment Section within the American Public Health Association. Corresponding Author: Michelle Del Rio, Assistant Professor, Department of Environ- mental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Indiana University–Blooming- ton, Innovation Center, Room 254, 2719 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47408. Email: midelrio@iu.edu.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health. (2019). Pediatric environmental health (R.A. Etzel & S.J. Balk, Eds.; 4th ed.). American Academy of Pediatrics.
American Public Health Association. (2017). Protecting children’s environmental health: A comprehensive framework (Policy number 201710). https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-
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