NSW Public Health Officer Training Program
The NSW Public Health Officer Training Program is a 3-year longworkplace based training program offering supervised experience for people who have completed postgraduate studies in public health and who are committed to a career in public health.
The Program is delivered by the NSW Ministry of Health in partnership with the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales. The NSW Ministry of Health provide opportunities for trainees to work across a range of workplace settings. Learning is guided by a competency framework and the strategic priorities of the NSW health system.
Trainees concurrently work towards the achievement of the Program’s competencies and the Doctorate of Applied Public Health.
The Training Program is also recognised for the training of medical graduates towards Fellowship of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. More information about the Faculty Training Program can be found on the Faculty website.
Mission
To improve the health of the people of NSW by contributing to the current and emerging needs of public health practice within NSW and Australia through providing leading public health service based higher education grounded in scholarship, collaborative relationships and evidence-based practice.
Strategic Goals
- Contribute to a skilled, flexible and sustainable public health workforce in NSW by developing public health professionals who are able to fill senior public health positions and adapt to the changing health and social environment.
- Support the use and the generation of evidence in all aspects of public health policy and practice by:
- Ensuring that the development and delivery of the program is informed by evidence from evaluation and health education research to underpin quality improvement;
- Contributing to the evidence and research base used to inform public health policy and practice in NSW through sustaining an academically rigorous workplace learning environment.
- Support career paths within the NSW health system for high achieving postgraduates in disciplinary areas relevant to public health practice.
- Provide NSW Health with the capacity to respond to workforce development needs of specialist areas within public health, the public health aspects of other specialist areas and emerging public health needs.
- Provide NSW Health with an immediate surge capacity of skilled practitioners able to respond to a variety of public health risks particularly in the event of emergencies and/or outbreaks of infectious diseases.
- Develop reflective public health practitioners committed to life-long learning who are able to critically appraise their own competence.
- Engage with the broader public health workforce and foster the community of practice that supports the delivery of the Training Program.
- Set high standards for personal and professional conduct.