Growing need to review career pathways in public health

The new emerging public health environment indicates the need for re-examination of career pathways in public health for all domains and across a variety of organisations.

While the specialist area of practice seems to have been well served in the past, it may now be useful to develop more routes to qualification and registration at both practitioner and specialist levels.

In view of the multidisciplinary character of public health and the scattered workforce, particularly at practitioner level, this would involve a significant re-examination of existing career pathways, and of the education and training platforms supporting career development.

The Public Health Skills and Career Framework has been developed and offers scope for determining routes into the many practitioner public health roles. However, career pathways currently appear opaque, and this may disincentivise many from remaining in the current workforce and set up obstacles in the future, with potential recruits not persuaded of the attractiveness of a career in public health.

This has been highlighted in a recent BMA survey concerning the retention of doctors in public health practice. The idea is of some relevance to workforce planning at national and local levels if developed career pathways are not matched by the availability of actual employment prospects.

Sources or references

• PHORCAst
• Public health trainees considering leaving specialty over job concerns (8 June 2012) H. Jacques BMJ Careers
• Review of the Regulation of Public Health Professionals (2010), Scally, G. DH/Public Health

Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.