The Special Commission on Local and Regional Public Health in their Blueprint for Public Health Excellence report recommended a workforce standard for local public health with the goal of ensuring consistency and competency in the hiring of public health professionals and in the placement of board members across municipalities. The Special Commission also underscored the need to have a diverse and representative workforce. The Office of Local and Regional Health provides funding to increase, diversify, and strengthen the local public health workforce.
The Blueprint also recommended a waiver process for the workforce standards in certain circumstances. Below are some examples of anticipated circumstances when a waiver request might be appropriate.
1) An experienced staff member who has worked at least 7 years in local public health and may not have the years of service left to acquire required credentials.
2) Sanitarians are required to become Registered Sanitarians within 6 years of hire. Given that the baseline education credential for inspectors is a high school diploma and the RS is required to have a bachelor’s degree within 6 years of hire, some inspectors might not be able to earn a degree in that time period while also working full time.
3) Given the tight labor market and more lucrative opportunities for RNs, public health nurses might be at an associate’s level RN at hire and need a waiver until they are able to complete the additional course work toward a bachelor’s degree of nursing.