Competency Guidelines for Public Health Laboratory Professionals CDC and the Association of Public Health Laboratories
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Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Supplement / Vol. 64 / No. 1 May 15, 2015 Competency Guidelines for Public Health Laboratory Professionals CDC and the Association of Public Health Laboratories U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Supplement CONTENTS CONTENTS (Continued) Introduction ............................................................................................................1 Safety Competency Guidelines ..................................................................... 36 Methodology ..........................................................................................................2 Surveillance Competency Guidelines ......................................................... 45 Guiding Principles .................................................................................................5 Informatics Competency Guidelines ........................................................... 49 Competencies and Skill Domains ....................................................................5 Microbiology Competency Guidelines ....................................................... 62 Quality Management System Competency Guidelines ..........................8 Chemistry Competency Guidelines ............................................................. 68 Ethics Competency Guidelines...................................................................... 14 Bioinformatics Competency Guidelines .................................................... 72 Management and Leadership Competency Guidelines ...................... 15 Research Competency Guidelines ............................................................... 74 Communication Competency Guidelines ................................................. 20 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 78 Security Competency Guidelines ................................................................. 23 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................. 78 Emergency Management and Response Competency Guidelines . 26 References ............................................................................................................. 78 Workforce Training Competency Guidelines ............................................ 29 Appendix A ........................................................................................................... 82 General Laboratory Practice Competency Guidelines .......................... 32 Appendix B ........................................................................................................... 83 The MMWR series of publications is published by the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA 30329-4027. Suggested citation: [Author names; first three, then et al., if more than six.] [Title]. MMWR Suppl 2015;64(Suppl-#):[inclusive page numbers]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, Director Harold W. Jaffe, MD, MA, Associate Director for Science Joanne Cono, MD, ScM, Director, Office of Science Quality Chesley L. Richards, MD, MPH, Deputy Director for Public Health Scientific Services Michael F. Iademarco, MD, MPH, Director, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services MMWR Editorial and Production Staff (Serials) Sonja A. Rasmussen, MD, MS, Editor-in-Chief Martha F. Boyd, Lead Visual Information Specialist Charlotte K. Kent, PhD, MPH, Executive Editor Maureen A. Leahy, Julia C. Martinroe, Christine G. Casey, MD, Editor Stephen R. Spriggs, Visual Information Specialists Teresa F. Rutledge, Managing Editor Quang M. Doan, MBA, Phyllis H. King, David C. Johnson, Lead Technical Writer-Editor Terraye M. Starr, Information Technology Specialists Jeffrey D. Sokolow, MA, Project Editor MMWR Editorial Board William L. Roper, MD, MPH, Chapel Hill, NC, Chairman King K. Holmes, MD, PhD, Seattle, WA Matthew L. Boulton, MD, MPH, Ann Arbor, MI Timothy F. Jones, MD, Nashville, TN Virginia A. Caine, MD, Indianapolis, IN Rima F. Khabbaz, MD, Atlanta, GA Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, MPH, MBA, Los Angeles, CA Patricia Quinlisk, MD, MPH, Des Moines, IA David W. Fleming, MD, Seattle, WA Patrick L. Remington, MD, MPH, Madison, WI William E. Halperin, MD, DrPH, MPH, Newark, NJ William Schaffner, MD, Nashville, TN Supplement Competency Guidelines for Public Health Laboratory Professionals CDC and the Association of Public Health Laboratories Prepared by Renée Ned-Sykes, PhD1 Catherine Johnson, MA2 John C. Ridderhof, DrPH1 Eva Perlman, MPH2 Anne Pollock3 John M. DeBoy, DrPH2 1Office of Public Health Scientific Services, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, CDC, Atlanta, Georgia 2Association of Public Health Laboratories, Silver Spring, Maryland 3Office of Public Health Scientific Services, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Division of Laboratory Systems, CDC, Atlanta, Georgia Corresponding preparer: Renée Ned-Sykes, [email protected], 404-498-0125. Summary These competency guidelines outline the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for public health laboratory (PHL) professionals to deliver the core services of PHLs efficiently and effectively. As part of a 2-year workforce project sponsored in 2012 by CDC and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), competencies for 15 domain areas were developed by experts representing state and local PHLs, clinical laboratories, academic institutions, laboratory professional organizations, CDC, and APHL. The competencies were developed and reviewed by approximately 170 subject matter experts with diverse backgrounds and experiences in laboratory science and public health. The guidelines comprise general, cross-cutting, and specialized domain areas and are divided into four levels of proficiency: beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. The 15 domain areas are 1) Quality Management System, 2) Ethics, 3) Management and Leadership, 4) Communication, 5) Security, 6) Emergency Management and Response, 7) Workforce Training, 8) General Laboratory Practice, 9) Safety, 10) Surveillance, 11) Informatics, 12) Microbiology, 13) Chemistry, 14) Bioinformatics, and 15) Research. These competency guidelines are targeted to scientists working in PHLs, defined as governmental public health, environmental, and agricultural laboratories that provide analytic biological and/or chemical testing and testing-related services that protect human populations against infectious diseases, foodborne and waterborne diseases, environmental hazards, treatable hereditary disorders, and natural and human-made public health emergencies. The competencies support certain PHL workforce needs such as identifying job responsibilities, assessing individual performance, and providing a guiding framework for producing education and training programs. Although these competencies were developed specifically for the PHL community, this does not preclude their broader application to other professionals in a variety of different work settings. Introduction Studies of the PHL workforce have drawn attention to several concerns about staff training and projected turnover, both of The national network of governmental public health, which highlight challenges to maintaining a sufficient number environmental, and agricultural laboratories, referred to of highly skilled and competent workers. A 2011 national PHL collectively as public health laboratories (PHLs), is a vital part workforce characterization survey found that approximately of the U.S. public health infrastructure. These laboratories one third of PHL directors nationally expected 16%–25% perform multiple functions through provision of analytic of their workforce to retire, resign, or be released in the biological and/or chemical testing and testing-related services subsequent 5 years, while 12% anticipated losing 26%–50% of that protect human populations from infectious diseases, their workforce during that time period (6,7). Approximately foodborne and waterborne diseases, environmental hazards, 30% of the individual scientific staff respondents expected to treatable hereditary disorders, and other natural and human- continue working in a PHL for <5 years (6). These findings made public health emergencies (1–3). A well-trained largely reflect workforce demographics, because more than laboratory workforce is essential to ensuring that PHLs have half of scientific laboratory staff were aged >45 years (6). the capacity to carry out the critical activities that are needed to Important recruitment and retention challenges for the PHL safeguard the public’s health competently and effectively (4,5). workforce also have been identified, including the lack of MMWR / May 15, 2015 / Vol. 64 / No. 1 1 Supplement established progressive job series (commonly termed “career Background ladders” in the PHL community) for PHL scientists (6–8) CDC and APHL have engaged collectively in multiple and the lack of adequate opportunities for training and laboratory workforce improvement efforts over the past professional development (6,7). Indeed, approximately 50% several years, providing the foundation for the development of laboratories reported no, minimal, or only partial capacity of these guidelines. More information about these efforts is to provide continuing education and