Support mechanisms and obstacles for developing public health practitioners’ core competences

Abstract Community health needs assessment is one of the central activities for local governments in Estonia, specifically under the health promotion strategic planning, and this includes developing health and well-being profiles for evidence-based public health promotion. For effective implementation of the profile, sufficiently trained public health practitioners are needed. Therefore, analysis of the needs of the additional study programmes according to the core competences of professional standard for health promotion was carried out among public health practitioners and the leaders of local governments. The study was based on the 19 semi-structured interviews carried out in 2022-2023 with leaders (10) and public health practitioners (9) in Estonian local governments. Based on the local government’s size, status of the health and well-being profile and the employment and educational background of the public health practitioner three sub-groups were developed. The collected data was analysed using qualitative content analysis with focus on support mechanisms and obstacles of core competences of public health practitioners. The respondents indicated the need for training on communication (leadership and advocacy) and analytical skills (evaluation and research). Core competence training is however limited by resources (time, energy, motivation, funding), employer expectations (overload at work) and working full-time. Training is supported by personal motivation (e.g., wish to stay competent, understanding the need for training), employer support (including flexible work arrangements), and curriculum support (funding is covered). The results indicate there is a need for flexible education as the need for developing and maintaining core competences emerges in practical work. The results can be used for developing the public health curriculum, to assess and provide training for public health practitioners to better meet the needs of the labor market in the future. Key messages • Local government employees performing health promotion tasks feel the need to upgrade various core competences: e.g., communication, management, data analysis and assessment. • In health promotion, there is a growing need for flexible education, which creates challenges for higher educational institutions to meet the needs of the labor market.