CDC's Collaboration with Academia to Strengthen Public Health Workforce Capacity

or targeted training on specific practices like PPE use or contract tracing has increased to respond to demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. Need for Project: Creating a structure around already available on-line, public courses is the first step towards ensuring appropriate knowledge is available for dissemination. Developing a certification training program as a next step can provide the education and preparation to help improve our nations understanding of PHEPR, perhaps leading to improved capacity to and engagement in response and shaping the future of the workforce to support response. Finally, making the public aware of the need for and availability of these trainings, and supporting the tracking of their use, is the final step in creating an innovative approach via a publicly available, multi-certificate public health emergency preparedness and response training program to merge academia and practice. Target Population: The target population is the general public, public health practitioners, healthcare professionals, laboratorians, epidemiologists, veterinarians, first responders, educators, and students. Key Activities: The recipient is expected to accomplish the following activities: • Develop at least five certificates with supporting curricula, as determined by subject matter experts (SMEs), in PHEPR specific areas (e.g. applied research and evaluation, policy, emergency management, community resilience), based on the adult education model with a focus on public health. • In close partnership with SMEs, determine the goal of each certification including the courses and the number of hours that can fulfill the goal (e.g. seven courses for fifteen hours to obtain the certificate). Each certification should include an introduction to PHEPR and at least one course on PHEPR science. Some of the certifications should be targeted to the general public and others should be targeted to public health or related practitioners. • Collaborate with CDC TRAIN, schools of public health, or other sources to populate the curriculum with pre-existing courses for little to no cost. If a course or courses deemed significant are not available in the public forum, the recipient shall work with CDC to determine if a course can be developed or provided by an external partner or academic institution. • Create a certificate portal on CDC TRAIN or a similar platform. Ensure the training program is widely available for the general public through dissemination efforts; ensure proper enrollment of participants; and develop and pilot a process to track participants; and evaluate the overall effectiveness of the training program. Outcomes: The purpose of this WIP is to leverage existing resources to expand public health training by rapidly creating a publicly, widely disseminated, multi-certificate public health emergency preparedness and response applied research and practice training program. The training program should include courses that can be used and applied in a local context and result in knowledge gained which advances the workforce in public health mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The program should emphasize the science base of public health, describe scientific principles, and encourage further development of knowledge as a natural extension of public health practice. The goal of this WIP is to (1) create a certification approach across several PHEPR areas that are amenable to self-learning; (2) develop a multi-certificate public health emergency preparedness and response applied research and practice curricula across several PHEPR areas; and (3) to disseminate the trainings and certifications to be used by stakeholders, partners, and the general public. The final products will be packaged and promoted on CDC, national partner, and other websites so they can be accessed by the general public and used by the public health and other practitioners. Review Criteria: Technical Approach (40 Points): Applicants shall provide a discussion of their technical approach for providing the services required for this Workforce Improvement Project (WIP). This discussion shall be in the Applicant’s own words; not simply a regurgitation of the requirements listed. This criterion will be evaluated according to the extent that it reflects a clear understanding of the subject areas to be addressed and on the soundness, practicality, and feasibility of the Applicant’s technical approach for providing the services required for this WIP. Management and Staffing Plan (20 Points): Applicants shall provide a management and staffing plan that describes their approach for managing the work outlined in this WIP by demonstrating their understanding of the labor requirements listed in this project description. This criterion will be evaluated according to the soundness, practicality, and feasibility of the management and staffing plan for this WIP. Applicants shall provide a detailed statement of staffing proposed for this WIP, including: Offerors shall provide a detailed statement of staffing proposed for this NOFO task, including: 1. Résumés from key personnel (limited to 2 pages in length per résumés) outlining the credentials and background of key management, professional, and technical personnel to be used for this WIP, including the percentage time on this and other projects. 2. A detailed plan that describes current staff available for this WIP and how the team will interface with CDC. Letters of commitment must accompany résumés from any individual who is not currently employed by the applicants. For key positions, indicate the time the person(s) will have available to commit to this project. Similar Experience (40 Points): Past performance information is one indicator of an Offeror’s ability to perform the work successfully. Provide information reflecting the applicant’s organizational capacity for projects similar in complexity and scope. Proposed staff and the institution (applicant) should have demonstrated experience in knowledge synthesis, translation, dissemination, and evaluation. In addition, at least 20% of the proposed staff should have demonstrated knowledge and experience in public health preparedness and response at the STLT level. This criterion will be evaluated to determine appropriate experience of assigned personnel and of the applicant. Requested Budget: $400,000 Project 2 Title: Building COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Among Nurses Strategic Priority Area(s): 1. Enhance the education system, 2. Strengthen systems and capacity to support the workforce. Eligibility: Only organizations that directly support nurses and schools or nursing nationwide are eligible for this work. Description: As COVID-19 vaccines continue to roll out, high uptake of the vaccines is necessary to reduce the burden of disease and control the pandemic. To achieve high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, it is critical to ensure high confidence in these vaccines, specifically around vaccine development, safety processes, approval, and recommendation criteria. Ensuring a broad understanding of these processes through frequent, consistent, and visible communication is essential, and much of this work starts with healthcare personnel. Healthcare personnel are among the first to be vaccinated, but they are also one of the most trusted messengers of information and will play a significant role in building confidence among the other priority groups and ultimately the general public. Need for Project: Healthcare providers are a critical and trusted source for information about adult and child immunizations. To build trust and empower healthcare personnel, healthcare providers play an essential role in boosting COVID-19 vaccine confidence. This project aims to engage nurses and nursing colleges to empower members and their patients to have effective COVID-19 vaccine conversations, activate members to make vaccine confidence visible, increase the capacity of members to share credible COVID-19 vaccination information and respond to misinformation on social media, and share success stories and lessons learned. Target Population: Nurses; nationwide Key Activities: 1. Empower members to have effective COVID-19 vaccine conversations and use motivational interviewing when needed – via webinars or online modules. Recipient can build off existing CDC resources and create new resources as appropriate. 2. Activate members to make COVID-19 vaccine confidence visible. Examples include gathering and sharing testimonials of members who have been vaccinated, video streaming their leadership being vaccinated, training members as media spokespeople on the topic of vaccine confidence and pitching media outlets to secure earned opportunities, and work with members to author op-ed articles about the importance of COVID-19 vaccination. 3. Increase the capacity of their members to share credible COVID-19 vaccine information and respond to misinformation on social media by identifying members who are already digital influencers and those that would like to have a bigger social media presence, conducting webinars/trainings using a CDC-provided toolkit, and convening members in a learning collaborative to support each other and address challenges. 4. Gather vaccine confidence “success stories” from their membership and package them into formats for sharing with membership (e.g., case studies, summaries of lessons learned, videos). NCIRD staff and staff supporting CDC's COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force will provide technical assistance for this work. Guidance will be provided, updated materials will be shared, and resources from a network of other partners supporting healthcare personnel will be made available to promote sharing of best practices and lessons learned. Outcomes: Increased number of resources for providers to engage in effective COVID-19 vaccine conversations. Increased number of strategies developed to build trust and confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine. Increased opportunities for collaboration amongst membership. Review Criteria: Applications will be reviewed using the following criteria: 1. Ability to empower members, using webinars and online modules that will have broad reach. 2. Ability to make vaccine confidence visible - share testimonials, train members as media spokespeople, media opportunities. 3. Ability to engage with local communities - through health departments, community-based organizations, etc. to target key populations (those at risk of severe complications of COVID-19 and those that are hesitant to receive the vaccine). 4. Applicants should include what targets they are setting for their population for vaccine uptake and self-reported hesitancy. Also, look at Section V for a further breakdown of the review criteria and point values. Requested Budget: $2,000,000 Project 3 Title: Public Health Data Modernization Workshop Priority Area: Increase the capability of the existing workforce Eligibility: Recipient should have extensive knowledge of and expertise in public health information systems, including surveillance systems; general health information systems; public health informatics; public health surveillance processes and practices; data exchange; data management; data analysis and presentation; and public health decision making. Recipient should have expertise and experience planning and hosting workshops and designing and implementing workforce development activities related to data, informatics, and health information systems (e.g., workforce assessments, training). Experience working with state health and local department staff on data and informatics topics is essential. Description: Public health agencies rely on timely, high quality data to understand and improve the health of their communities. CDC’s Data Modernization Initiative and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provide funding for state, local, and territorial public health jurisdictions to improve how they gather, manage and use data to guide action. The volume of electronically available data, increasing connectedness, and powerful computing offer public health both opportunities and challenges. Modernizing data strategies, infrastructure and the workforce requires a sound understanding of the technology and strategic, well-coordinated planning. Need for Project: Through this project, the selected academic center will plan, organize, and convene a two-day Public Health Data Modernization workshop in Atlanta for two persons from each of the public health jurisdictions that receive funding through the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Cooperative Agreement, Activity C2 (CK19-1904). Data modernization includes workforce, technologies, processes, and strategies that accelerate improvements to data quality, exchange, management, and use. The purpose of the workshop will be to convene the lead data modernization coordinators and possibly another scientist (e.g., informatician, epidemiologists, data scientist) to improve their ability to build data and informatics capabilities in their jurisdiction. The content of the workshop will be developed in coordination with CDC and should include training, sharing, and discussions about data modernization topics (e.g., data standards, analytics, shared services, effective technologies) and also include strategies for conducting workforce development in these areas. Target Population: Through this project, the selected academic center will plan, organize, and convene a two-day Public Health Data Modernization workshop in Atlanta for two persons from each of the public health jurisdictions that receive funding through the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Cooperative Agreement, Activity C2 (CK19-1904). Key Activities: • The workshop will be geared to the recipients of the ELC Cooperative Agreement – Activity C2. These recipients will have: Identified a focal point to lead data modernization in their health departments. Developed an assessment of their public health workforce and data and health information systems to identify opportunities for modernization. Developed an overall strategy for modernizing their agency data infrastructure and workforce. • The assessments and plans should be synthesized and used by the public health partner to plan and develop the content of the workshop. • The workshop should include strategies and content for building the leadership and informatics capabilities of the jurisdictional leads for data modernization. • Strategies for developing capabilities should include recommendations for additional and targeted learning and training after the workshop (e.g., plans for peer-to-peer learning). • The workshop should be evaluated to assess learning by and relevance to attendees. • Collaboration should include State, territorial and large local health departments that receive funding through the ELC Cooperative Agreement – Activity C2 and public health partner organizations that support the public health functions of these jurisdictions. • Coordination with CDC’s Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services (CSELS) is expected on workshop strategies and execution. • CSELS will collaborate with the recipient on workshop strategies and execution and will be a resource for information about jurisdiction modernization assessments and modernization plans. The recipient should plan to meet with CDC one to two times each month. Outcomes: A well-coordinated two-day workshop in Atlanta that advances jurisdiction abilities to build data and informatics capabilities and infrastructure, with an evaluation to measure impact. Review Criteria: • Demonstrated expertise in public health informatics and understanding of public health data systems and data practices. (30 points) • Demonstrated understanding of information technology opportunities and ability to assist public health in evaluating their potential impact. (30 points) • Demonstrated success in developing and implementing workforce development and training activities for the public health sector. (25 points) • Expertise and experience planning and hosting workshops. (15 points) Other Information: Project funding is intended to cover planning, materials, staff, the workshop, evaluation, follow-up, and meeting room costs. Workshop participants from public health agencies have their travel to and from the workshop covered through the terms of the ELC Cooperative Agreement – Activity C2. Requested Budget: $300,000