Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Transforming public health specialists into public health leaders

2013; Elsevier BV; Volume: 381; Issue: 9865 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(13)60245-7

1474-547X

Katarzyna Czabanowska, Tony Smith, Mindaugas Stankūnas, Mark Avery, Robert Otok,

Public Health Policies and Education

Matthew Day and colleagues (Oct 6, p 1205)1Day M Shickle D Smith K Zakariasen K Oliver T Moskol J Time for heroes: public health leadership in 21st century.Lancet. 2012; 380: 1205-1206Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (13) Google Scholar suggest recommendations for developing public health leaders. We agree that leadership is a crucial component in public health. However, the proposed focus on super leaders seems outdated in its assumptions.The King's Fund report "No more heroes"2King's FundThe future of leadership and management in the NHS: no more heroes. Kings Fund, London2011http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/future-leadership-and-management-nhsGoogle Scholar takes a different stance, as does the US National Public Health Leadership Institute.3Umble K Steffen D Porter J et al.The National Public Health Leadership Institute: evaluation of a team-based approach to developing collaborative public health leaders.Am J Public Health. 2005; 95: 641-644Crossref PubMed Scopus (35) Google Scholar Strengthening leadership capacity within public health could affect the health of the public substantially through ensuring the maximisation of outcomes of public health programmes. Every public health organisation should therefore be engaged in developing more leaders at every level and creating collaborative organisational cultures. Public health education and training needs to be transformative and interdependent.4Frenk J Chen L Bhutta ZA et al.for the Global Independent Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st CenturyHealth professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an independent world.Lancet. 2010; 376: 1923-1958Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (2936) Google Scholar The teaching of leadership is still not common in public health training programmes around the world and seems particularly rare in countries experiencing intensive public health reforms. There is a pressing need for substantial investment in leadership training for public health professionals.The Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region, together with the University of Maastricht, Netherlands; the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences; Sheffield Hallam University, UK; the Medical University of Graz, Austria; and Griffith University, Australia, have launched the Leaders for European Public Health (LEPHIE) project. LEPHIE bridges the gap between current academic programmes and the need for effective public health leaders through development of an EU-centric competencies framework, applying blended and problem-based learning pedagogies and creating cross-cultural educational experiences. The programme aims to prepare participants to be public health leaders and innovators.We declare that we have no conflicts of interest. Matthew Day and colleagues (Oct 6, p 1205)1Day M Shickle D Smith K Zakariasen K Oliver T Moskol J Time for heroes: public health leadership in 21st century.Lancet. 2012; 380: 1205-1206Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (13) Google Scholar suggest recommendations for developing public health leaders. We agree that leadership is a crucial component in public health. However, the proposed focus on super leaders seems outdated in its assumptions. The King's Fund report "No more heroes"2King's FundThe future of leadership and management in the NHS: no more heroes. Kings Fund, London2011http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/future-leadership-and-management-nhsGoogle Scholar takes a different stance, as does the US National Public Health Leadership Institute.3Umble K Steffen D Porter J et al.The National Public Health Leadership Institute: evaluation of a team-based approach to developing collaborative public health leaders.Am J Public Health. 2005; 95: 641-644Crossref PubMed Scopus (35) Google Scholar Strengthening leadership capacity within public health could affect the health of the public substantially through ensuring the maximisation of outcomes of public health programmes. Every public health organisation should therefore be engaged in developing more leaders at every level and creating collaborative organisational cultures. Public health education and training needs to be transformative and interdependent.4Frenk J Chen L Bhutta ZA et al.for the Global Independent Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st CenturyHealth professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an independent world.Lancet. 2010; 376: 1923-1958Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (2936) Google Scholar The teaching of leadership is still not common in public health training programmes around the world and seems particularly rare in countries experiencing intensive public health reforms. There is a pressing need for substantial investment in leadership training for public health professionals. The Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region, together with the University of Maastricht, Netherlands; the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences; Sheffield Hallam University, UK; the Medical University of Graz, Austria; and Griffith University, Australia, have launched the Leaders for European Public Health (LEPHIE) project. LEPHIE bridges the gap between current academic programmes and the need for effective public health leaders through development of an EU-centric competencies framework, applying blended and problem-based learning pedagogies and creating cross-cultural educational experiences. The programme aims to prepare participants to be public health leaders and innovators. We declare that we have no conflicts of interest. Time for heroes: public health leadership in the 21st centuryPublic health leaders have been criticised for their policy stances, relationships with governments, and failure to train the next generation.1 At the same time, there is widespread recognition that the challenges posed by obesity, alcohol, smoking, and climate change require solutions from public health approaches. As part of a project funded by the Worldwide Universities Network, we explored the role of leadership in tackling the public health challenges of the 21st century. Leaders in public health come from not only from within the profession but also, and perhaps more importantly, from outside. Full-Text PDF Transforming public health specialists into public health leaders – Authors' replyKatarzyna Czabanowska and colleagues are correct in their assertion that public health leadership programmes should be targeted at every level. This point actually aligns well with our conclusions and corresponding figure,1 which recommend targeted programmes to move public health professionals to the next leadership level. However, we went further by arguing that in addition to improving the quality of leadership within public health, we need to expand leadership for public health. Full-Text PDF