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Tobacco Use and Health Consequences

Tobacco was first discovered and used by indigenous people in the American continent and was later introduced to Europe and the rest of the world. Today, indigenous people worldwide continue to utilize the tobacco plant for medicinal and ceremonial purposes and is often referred to as traditional or sacred tobacco.

This training focuses specifically on commercial tobacco*, which contains many additional substances and chemicals. It is a legal substance that is regulated and marketed to consumers through various products that can be burned, heated, or chewed. Throughout this training, we will define and classify tobacco, present the prevalence of tobacco use among diverse populations, describe the adverse health effects caused by tobacco use, and then share the positive health effects of quitting. 

The Western Region Public Health Training Center (WRPHTC) developed a series of courses (six) in collaboration with the Arizona Center for Tobacco Cessation (ACTC) to provide public health professionals with an understanding of tobacco dependency and evidence-based treatment that supports quitting.

*For these modules, the term tobacco will refer specifically to commercial tobacco, a legal and regulated substance, and does not refer to the traditional tobacco grown and harvested by American Indians and Alaska Natives used for ceremonial or medicinal purposes.


Learning Objectives: 

By the end of this training, you will be able to: 
1. Generalize the prevalence of tobacco use among diverse populations
2. Classify the types of tobacco products
3. Describe the adverse health effects caused by tobacco dependency
4. Explain the positive health effects associated with quitting tobacco 

Target Audience: Health and human service providers, medical and allied health professionals and students, community health influencers, administrators, policymakers, and those in specialty areas of health and human service professions: Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Physicians, Pharmacists, Health Educators, Wellness Coaches, Dental Hygienists, Addiction Counselors, Respiratory Therapists, etc.

Duration:  45 minutes

Continuing Education Information: 0.75 Category 1 CHES Credits, 0.75 Continuing Competency Credits

Format:  Web-based Training, Self-Study

Disclosures:  The planners, reviewers, and authors have no declared conflicts of interest

Created/Updated: January 2021

Authors: 

Mark Boldt, Director, Tobacco Cessation Training Institute.
Jazmin C. Villavicencio, Tobacco Treatment Training Specialist
Krista Walker, Tobacco Cessation Training Specialist

Dipanwita Das, Senior Instructional Designer

Genetic Counseling and Testing for Hereditary Cancer

Identifying individuals at high risk for hereditary cancer is an important public health issue. Genetic counseling and testing can help identify individuals with genetic mutations to help them identify personal and family risks, navigate prevention and early detection of hereditary cancer, and guide individualized treatment options for individuals with hereditary cancer. Health departments can provide information to patients and providers on what hereditary cancer is and the importance of genetic counseling and testing.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Describe hereditary cancer and hereditary cancer syndromes, including how they are inherited and the increased risk of cancer an individual with a hereditary cancer syndrome has.
  2. Define genetic counseling and genetic testing and discuss the benefits and limitations of testing.
  3. Discuss the public health implications, policies, and guidelines surrounding genetic counseling and genetic testing related to hereditary cancer.
  4. Discuss measures health departments can take to raise awareness and reduce the morbidity and mortality of hereditary cancer.

Target Audience:  Health Care Professionals, Health Departments, Public Health Professionals

Duration:  1 hour

Continuing Education Information:  1 CECH for CHES

Format:  Web-based Training, Self-Study

Created/Updated:  January 2021

Author(s)/ Presenter(s):  Alexa Rosenblum, MS, CGC; Caitlin Meyer Krause, MPH

Arranged by:  Caitlin Meyer Krause, MPH; Instructional Specialist

Improving policies and practices to support breastfeeding

Review current breastfeeding rates in the U.S. and ways to promote increased breast-feeding rates. Specifically, we’ll highlight two programs that support women’s breastfeeding goals: Baby Friendly Hospitals and Workplace Policies and Support, including “Babies at Work” programs.

 

Learning Objectives:

  • List strategies for implementing successful maternal and infant programs that will promote exclusive breastfeeding
  • Propose workplace policies that can support breastfeeding
  • Identify assets and resources available to support the implementation of a baby friendly hospital or a workplace breastfeeding policy

Target Audience:  Dietitians, Educators/ Trainers, Nurses, Physicians and Other Clinicians, Healthcare, Lactation Consultant

  

Duration:  ~ 60 minutes

 

Continuing Education Information:  1.0 Category 1 CHES Credit, 1.0 Continuing Competency Credit


CHES Provider number: 99036


Disclosure: The planners, reviewers, and authors have no declared conflicts of interest.


Format: Web-based Training, Self-Study

Created/Updated:  10/4/2016; updated 12/2020

 

Author(s):  Lindsey Gray, MPH, CLC; Allison Root, MS, RDN; Julian Manzanares, BS; AnaSofia Martinez, BS

Preparing for the New Working World

Based on a foundational framework of a healthy workplace we will focus on return-to-workplace principles and strategies as well as highlight how to improve wellbeing while working from home. Employers at large are looking for this type of expertise as they get ready for the new working world. 

The course will feature many examples of programs and strategies and also several interviews with corporate health experts. We will conclude with a test of competency and leave you with numerous useful resources for continued learning. 

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe key characteristics of the future working world.
  • Recognize the importance of a comprehensive and sustainable health strategy in organizations.
  • Define the principles and essential elements of a safe return to the workplace.
  • Explain how to create a healthy working from home experience while maintaining a good work-life balance.

Audience: Supervisors and Leaders

Duration: ~ 1 hour

Continuing Education Information:  1.0 CECH for CHES

Format:  Web-based Training, Self-Study

Created/ Updated:  February 2021

Author:  Wolf Kirsten, Founder of International Health Consulting

Episode 20: Lessons Learned from the Pandemic Response to COVID-19

In the final episode of Keeping Up with Public Health: Pandemic Response (Season 2), Dr. Joe Gerald, Dr. Kristen Pogreba-Brown, and Dr. Kate Ellingson look back on the public health response to COVID-19, discuss the challenges that were faced and what was learned from them.

Learning Objectives

  • Discuss challenges in the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and what was learned

  • Describe the importance of testing, what was missed, and what types of testing are becoming available

  • Discuss missteps with face mask messaging and the current importance of wearing face masks

Continuing Education Information: 0.5 CECH for CHES

Duration: 41 min.

Provider number: 99036

Date Released: 9/2020


Episode 19: Pandemic Response: The Impact of COVID-19 on Health Disparities

In this episode, join Agnes Attakai, Sheila Soto, and Dr. Paloma Beamer in a conversation about health disparities and the potential lasting impacts of COVID-19 on Native American communities and Latin American migrant populations.

Learning Objectives

  • Discuss impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Native American communities and Latin American migrant populations
  • Discuss lasting impacts these communities may face moving forward through the rest of the pandemic and beyond

Continuing Education Information: 0.5 CECH for CHES

Duration: 35 min.

Provider number: 99036

Date Released: 9/2020


Addressing Flu Vaccine Hesitancy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Seasonal flu vaccination is more important than ever amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, vaccine hesitancy is a common issue that health care professionals encounter. This training will describe seasonal flu, the flu vaccine, and the synergistic epidemics of COVID-19 and influenza, and introduce strategies to address vaccine hesitance.

Course Objectives:

  1. Describe seasonal flu and seasonal flu vaccination 
  2. Discuss the importance of seasonal flu vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic
  3. Identify reasons for vaccine hesitancy
  4. Introduce strategies to address seasonal flu vaccine hesitancy 

Target Audience:  Health Care Professionals, Health Departments, Public Health Professionals

Duration:  45 minutes

Continuing Education Information: 0.75 Category 1 CHES Credits, 0.75 Continuing Competency Credits

Format:  Web-based Training, Self-Study

Created/Updated:  October 2020

Author(s)/ Presenter(s):  Crystal Rambaud, MPH, RN; Caitlin Meyer Krause, MPH; Maiya Block; Elizabeth Chavez; Ava Neddermeyer

Arranged by:  Caitlin Meyer Krause, MPH; Instructional Specialist

Arizona Surge Line: A 24/7 Transfer Service that crosses Counties, Regions, and Hospital Systems

The Arizona Surge Line is a 24/7 toll-free call line that expedites the transfers of patients with COVID-19 across the state of Arizona, load-leveling, and protecting hospitals. The Arizona Surge Line was created and protocolized by the collaboration between Chief Medical Officers and Hospital Transfer Centers across the state and continues to shift and expand over time. The first strategy focused on transfers to higher levels of care and later expanded to lower levels of care to increase the availability of hospital beds. There are now real-time clinical consultations offered, backup transportation provided, a dashboard of all available beds in post-acute care facilities offered, and a novel surge staffing initiative is currently being implemented. The Arizona Surge Line has been referenced extensively in the press by the hospitals themselves and has been partially credited for the sheer amount of collaboration between systems, counties, county, and federal facilities. 

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn how the load-leveling of resource-heavy patients across hospitals in the state was a collaborative, beneficial project that kept the healthcare system afloat in a state 

  • Consider how a similar model could be implemented in public health departments across the country for a minimal cost 

  • Explore how a centralized transfer line could be leveraged in other public health emergencies that would cause stress on the healthcare system 

Target Audience:  Public Health Professionals

Duration:  ~ 25 minutes

Continuing Education Information:  0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Web-based Training, Self-Study

Created/ Updated: 8/2020

Presenter: Lisa Villarroel, MD, MPH

Dr. Lisa Villarroel serves as the Medical Director for the Division of Public Health Preparedness at the Arizona Department of Health Services. She received her Bachelors in Biology at Princeton University and her Doctor of Medicine at Northwestern University before getting her Master’s in Public Health and becoming board certified in Family Medicine in Phoenix, Arizona. At the Department, she has served as the Medical Director for the Arizona emergency response to Ebola, Zika, Opioid and COVID-19 Crises. She was a lead for the Arizona Opioid Prescribing Guidelines(2018), the Arizona Pain and Addiction Curriculum(2018), the Arizona Surge Line, and the Arizona Surge Staffing Initiative. In addition to her work at the health department, she is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and a practicing locum tenens.

The Post-COVID Workforce of the Future

This presentation will provide insights on the need for the continual evolution of public health practices in light of COVID-19 and the current social movements that highlight how social determinants effect health disparities.  A focus on what trainings are needed to strengthen the current and future public health workforce will be discussed to respond to the necessity that public health services must be redefined and redesigned.  Examples of current and novel steps that are starting to be taken by health departments and public health education programs to meet this challenge will be presented.  We will conclude our presentation by proposing what new knowledge and skills are needed by the public health workforce so our current communal approach to infectious disease prevention can be leveraged to reduce a variety of health disparities including maternal and child health, and chronic disease outcomes. 

Learning Objectives

  • Evaluate how COVID-19 has further amplified the relationship between public health efforts and social determinants undermine health. 

  • Identify new areas of knowledge and skills that are needed within an expanded definition of the public health workforce. 

  • Discuss what is needed to create a more diverse, community-centric public health workforce. 

Target Audience:  Public Health Professionals

Duration:  ~ 35 minutes

Continuing Education Information:  0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Web-based Training, Self-Study

Created/ Updated: 8/2020

Presenters: Douglas Taren, Ph.D., MS; and Betty Bekemeier, Ph.D., MPH, RN, FAAN

Douglas Taren is a Professor of Public Health at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. He has more than 30 years of experience conducting research and training students in international health. His research and teaching activities have included projects in Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, China, Nepal, Kenya, Senegal, and the US Associated Pacific Islands, and more.Dr. Taren currently directs the Western Region Public Health Training Center (WRPHTC)for HRSA Region 9 (Arizona, Nevada, California, Hawaii, and the US Affiliated Pacific Islands). The WRPHTC works to strengthen the public health workforce through interactive, skill-based training.

Betty Bekemeier is a professor at the University of Washington (UW) School of Nursing and Director of the UW School of Public Health’s Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. She is a distinguished public health systems researcher focused on improving the effectiveness of our prevention systems and related workforce. She has led numerous studies regarding local health department services and their impact on health outcomes and equity. She emphasizes the inclusion of rural public health jurisdictions to generate evidence that will improve the reach and distribution of services to underserved communities and meet the needs of the rural workforce. Dr. Bekemeier is also PI of the Public Health Activities and Services Tracking (PHAST) Study, initiated in 2010 through the RWJF. PHAST is a highly regarded, growing database of uniquely detailed and linked data regarding LHD services and financing, including the PHAST Uniform Chart of Accounts which is helping local health departments have better access to meaningful financial data for decision-making. Dr. Bekemeier’s projects and studies are carried out in close partnership with public health practice leaders and have been immediately relevant to addressing current policy issues. She has also held many leadership positions, including those in the Washington State Public Health Association, the American Public Health Association, NACCHO’s Profile Workgroup.

Making the Connection: How the Drive to Connect in a Socially Distanced World Could Improve our Approaches to Learning in Public Health

During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health professionals across the U.S. and globally have used video conference technology to exchange vital information, build knowledge, provide peer support, and work collaboratively. As we transition into recovery, we have an opportunity to leverage these shifts in the way public health professionals work and learn together to create more permanent systems for connecting professionals and developing workforce capacity. In this session, we will explore two learning/capacity building models that are based in human connection, mutual interest, and adult learning theory that build long-lasting public health capacity. Specifically, we will focus on communities of practice (aka learning communities, learning collaboratives, peer networks, etc.) and Project ECHO. ®  

Learning Objectives

  • Name the characteristics of communities of practice and Project ECHO that make them well-suited for emergency response and recovery.  

  • Identify the principles of communities of practice and Project ECHO that support adult learning. 

  • Identify the core elements of launching and managing successful communities of practice, including participant engagement and facilitation.  

  • Access resources for more guidance on communities of practice, Project ECHO, Connected Learning, and similar models.  

Target Audience:  Public Health Professionals

Duration:  ~ 40 minutes

Continuing Education Information: 0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Web-based Training, Self-Study

Created/ Updated: 8/2020

Presenter: Jennifer McKeever, MSW, MPH

Jennifer McKeever is an independent consultant with over 15 years of experience turning big ideas into actionable programs. She specializes in creating teams, systems, and processes to successfully implement large public health initiatives. Jennifer is well-known for her ability to design, convene, and facilitate meaningful conversations and learning events. Most recently, Jennifer led the creation of NNPHI’s National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training (NCCPHT), guiding the organization's investment in the public health workforce. Through innovative learning technologies and proven approaches grounded in adult learning theory, NCCPHT serves all public health professionals by expanding access to high-quality training, tools, and resources they need to effectively respond to complex public health issues. She also created thewww.phlearningnavigator.org and NNPHI's Project ECHO network. Jennifer’s work is driven by the belief that the workforce is public health’s most valuable asset, and we should demonstrate that value through funding and quality workforce development.

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