Educational Purpose
The educational purpose of APHA Annual Meeting is to offer professionals and practitioners the opportunity to enhance their knowledge, improve their skills, exchange information on best practices, and learn strategies to incorporate the latest research and new trends in their practice. The theme of the meeting is "Creating the Healthiest Nation: Strengthening Social Connectedness".
Educational Objectives
- To address the gap between public health practitioners’ knowledge and performance as it relates to how where you live affects the health and well-being of the population.
- To define the roles of the public health community in responding to the influences of geography, social and physical environments.
- To increase knowledge of public health issues as it relates to geography, social and physical environments.
- To identify best practices in addressing public health issues as it relates to geography, social and physical environments.
- To improve the competencies of public health practitioners through skill building.
Learning Needs and Identified Gaps
Through multiple mechanisms, including needs assessment surveys, the judgment of the APHA Education Board and input from the Continuing Education Committee, APHA has identified a gap in public health practitioners' competency in the impacts of geography, social and physical environmental factors as they relate to knowledge of best practices that can be applied to communities to affect health status. This Annual Meeting will address the professional practice gap between practitioners’ knowledge of geography, social and physical environments' impact on health status, best practices and strategies to translate those best practices into use in areas such as applied epidemiology or biostatistics, health policy, social and behavioral sciences, and environmental health.
Target Audience
Policymakers, physicians, social workers, health educators, public and environmental health professionals, students, international, federal, state, county, and local health agency officials and staff, nurses and nurse practitioners, health care providers, school health personnel and teachers, managed care group personnel, and faculty from academia, administration and research.