NWCPHP is excited to release a first-of-its-kind digital training for environmental health professionals.
To learn more about the new course, we spoke with the Center’s Instructional Designer, Kevin deVoss.
“There aren’t many broad, preparatory learning resources out there for folks starting out in the environmental health field,” Kevin said. “So, as we started the journey of building this course, we wanted to make sure we were presenting material that was most current and relevant to the workforce.”
In 2024, the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) conducted a nationwide training needs assessment in partnership with the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI). The assessment asked nearly 500 environmental health professionals what types of topics, scientific knowledge, professional skills, and training delivery they believed were most important for success in the field.
With support from the CDC Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG), NWCPHP teamed up with experts from NNPHI and the Kentucky Department for Public Health to take a closer look at these findings and develop a plan for developing a unique learning product.
“We learned that respondents really favored training that focused on real-life situations that registered sanitarians, hygienists, and other environmental health professionals would experience on the job,” Kevin said.
Working with experts in the field, the team was also able to narrow the focus to key topic areas that are foundational to environmental public health work like food safety, clean water, and air quality. They decided to use video-based storytelling to deliver the learning content after hearing from the same professionals that they preferred engaging, bite-sized content.
The result of this work is Environmental Health Essentials: From Science to Practice, a 90-minute course with short, digestible lessons spanning 9 core topic areas. The course presents a tiered learning approach, combining on-the-job interactions with scientific skill-building exercises.
The course material also includes an extensive, curated resource library featuring a variety of practical learning materials that align with the core topic areas.
Visit Environmental Health Essentials: From Science to Practice to learn more. Create an account in PH LearnLink to access the course and start learning today.
