Heartland
Public Health Education
and Training Center (HETC)
 The HETC is one of fourteen public health training centers (PHTC) based
at accredited schools of public health covering forty-five states and
the District of Columbia. This National
PHTC Network is a unique
initiative, funded by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services,
Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions,
providing fundamental education and training in public health that is:
- Crucial for a well-prepared workforce to respond effectively on
the population’s daily health needs; and,
- Necessary as the basic foundational training needed before acquiring
skills in emergency and disaster preparedness.
Core HETC academic and practice partnerships include the Missouri
Department of Health and Senior Services, the Saint
Louis University School of Public Health, the Kansas
Department of Health and Environment, the University
of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, Department of Preventive Medicine,
the University of Oklahoma
College of Public Health, and the Oklahoma
State Department of Health. Regional partnerships have expanded
and evolved to new levels of development based on the fundamental HETC
mission to “expand partnerships and critical linkages among state
and local practice and academic partners in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma
to provide improved access to education and training for the current
and future public health workforce to strengthen competence, performance
and capacity to improve the nation’s public health system.”
Development of the HETC over the past 7 years has involved critical
priorities of practice based and academic partners, and collaboration
with PHTC Network partners to meet local, state, regional and national
workforce development objectives to improve capacity to perform essential
public health services. A broad audience of health professionals
is targeted for development including nurses, physicians, dentists, veterinarians,
health educators, health administrators, sanitarians, community health
workers, policymakers and those serving in medically underserved areas. HETC
objectives include:
- Develop, strengthen and sustain public health workforce competence
to perform essential services through implementation of programs for
life-long learning.
- Continue to utilize workforce development needs, assets and capacity
assessment data to prioritize education and training objectives,
methods and strategies
- Develop and implement certification and competency-based education
programs and products to strengthen workforce competence to perform
essential public health services
- Identify and utilize distance learning, technology mediation, and
learning management system capacity to improve access to competency-based
workforce development programs and products within the HETC region
PHTC Network
- Expand use of evaluation and research methods to determine impact
and outcome measures and disseminate and publish findings and best
practice demonstrations
- Share expertise and resources across local, state, regional and national
jurisdictions to contribute to National PHTC Network objectives for
public health workforce development
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