Building Planning Skills For Public Health Business Planning

Stephen N. Orton, PhD, Deputy Director of the Office of Executive Education at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, stated, People who work in public health are knowledgeable health professionals, but many come up through the ranks with limited business skills (as cited by W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2008). This was said because public health managers and leaders often have visions that do not come to life. This may be because they lack resources, lack support, have administrative barriers, or just simply lack the skills to execute their vision (Orton, Menkens, Santos, 2009). There are key building planning skills involved in public health business planning - assessment and strategic planning; program planning, implementation,†¦show more content†¦A positive and strong culture can lead to consistent values and methods in achieving the task (Healey Lesneski, 2011). The staff needed, while also identifying any experience, training, and skills that would be needed, will need to be assessed to move forward. Full time equivalents, or FTE’s, would include those identified a year out as part of the health fair wellness planning committee (consisting of a representative from the school, health care clinic, health care professional, church, local employer, and a citizen from the targeted community) and subcommittees, such as clinical, facility, food, clerical, and publicity. The ideal number of persons for each committee would be three to six hence, bringing the FTE total to eighteen. The roles and or responsibilities of each committee will be as follows: †¢ Planning - Identify target audience, selecting a date and time, developing a timeline, identify members for the subcommittees, set policies, identify potential vendors and donors, and establishing contact with vendors. †¢ Clinical – Responsibilities include identifying essential health topics and booths that will be used at the health fair for the targeted audience. Planning for consent forms to be acknowledged and immunizations that will be appropriate to take place. †¢ Facility and Supplies – Responsibilities include developing a layout of the fair after determining if the event will be held indoors or outdoors or a combination of both. The team will be responsible