Table 3 Summary of approaches and best practices for developing evidenced-based, impactful public health competency statements and frameworks
Recommendation | Actions to Achieve Recommendation |
|---|---|
Evidence-informed foundation bridges the research-practice interface | • Achieved through literature reviews, environmental scans, review of existing competency frameworks, and expert consultation to gather evidence and contextual information • Increases validity and reliability of competency statements/ frameworks |
Multi-step consensus-building process centres the process in evidence | • Expert consultation should be woven into multiple different steps of the process • Experts should include public health researchers and practitioners, as well as other actors including community-based and government partners • Centers the process in expert knowledge, research findings, and intersectoral/community-based public health |
Transparent and comprehensive reporting of the methods and results for approaches is needed | • Allows for research to be interpreted and repeated • Future research should include developing validated instruments for use during consensus-building and competency theory • Pilot testing instruments before consensus-building can increase validity of results in absence of validated instruments • Reporting of methods should include participant recruitment information, detailed outline of all steps included, instruments used, and statistical methods • Supplementary information with survey instrument, interview guide, etc. would be helpful in guiding similar research and interpretation of results • Reporting of results should be systematic and detailed |
Governance and coordination of competency frameworks are essential for impact | • Governance is necessary to ensure frameworks are up-to-date, resourced, and reflective of current values and needs • Coordinated and comprehensive rollout strategy impacts the success |
Design of the frameworks is a key consideration for useability in practice | • Use clear language, tables, and a user-friendly design that has a reasonable number of competency statements • Future research should include an evaluation of the usefulness of the design |
Multifaceted approaches for developing and evaluating competencies can address complex public health challenges | • Complex challenges must be explicitly integrated and reflected in competency frameworks • Values are key aspects of competency frameworks to address complex problems |