Competency Gaps Among Governmental Public Health Employees With and Without a Certification in Public Health.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine competency gaps among governmental public health workers with and without the Certified in Public Health (CPH) credential, specifically among the majority of the workforce without a formal public health degree.

Design: This cross-sectional study uses 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) data. Multivariate logistic regressions of reported skill gaps were performed while controlling for gender, age, race/ethnicity, public health degree attainment, role type, current employer, and tenure in public health practice.

Setting: A nationally representative sample of governmental public health employees.

Participants: 36 752 U.S. governmental public health employees across local and state health agencies representing 47 states.

Main outcome measures: Self-reported competency gaps.

Results: Among nonsupervisors without a formal public health degree, those with a CPH had lower odds of reporting competency gaps in 3 of the 23 skills assessed compared to those without a CPH. Among supervisors/managers without a formal public health degree, those with a CPH had lower odds of reporting competency gaps in 6 of the 24 skills assessed compared to those without a CPH. Among executives without a formal public health degree, those with a CPH had no significant differences in reporting competency gaps in any of the 24 skills assessed compared to those without a CPH. When looking at the public health workforce as a whole, both with and without formal public health degrees, there were few significant competency gap differences between workers with and without the CPH.

Conclusions: Having a CPH is associated with fewer self-reported competency gaps, specifically among the 85% of governmental public health employees without a public health degree. Thus, the CPH may be valuable to the sizable governmental public health workforce that does not have a formal education in public health. The CPH seems to be less impactful for executives compared to other supervisory levels.