Public Health Undergraduates in the Workforce: A Trickle, Soon a Wave?

Abstract

data show that approximately 40% of the employees with a nursing degree at the state health agency level work outside clinical settings, and at the local level, 21% of nurses hold roles that are nonclinical. Defining these roles appropriately is critical, especially for public health nursing, as Bekemeier et al. note, “the inefficient or improper deployment of the limited public health nursing workforce can adversely undermine the health of whole populations.” Consideration of the different levels of analytic and training requirements is necessary to fill different kinds of roles and programs. Although many consider a master of public health (MPH) degree a standard for entry into the field, some lower-level positions could be staffed by trained public health workers with bachelor’s degrees. Doing so would allow public health agencies to concentrate scarce salary dollars into a smaller number of MPH-required positions and have those positions conduct the more sophisticated tasks that truly require the higher level of formal training that comes with a master’s degree. This could be a financially viable alternative for cash-strapped agencies to attract qualified MPH graduates into governmental public health by raising job requirements and salary levels for these roles. Although salaries are not the only barrier to public health hiring, state and local health departments should engage in discussions regarding how the public health workforce perceive salary and benefits. Even though benefits packages in public sector jobs have been considerably weakened in recent years, they are still viewed as a competitive advantage comparedwithbenefits in private sector jobs. In addition, exploring strategies to implement in states where the funding and authority exist to maneuver salary bands should be considered. As the field of governmental public health remains poised for generational change, state and local governmental public health can and should domore to recruit and retain the best and the brightest. Salary discussions are only one important part of these efforts, but the likelihood exists that only better financial compensation and incentives will help recruitment and retention, especially for key public health occupations.