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What are competencies?

A competency can be defined as a complex combination of knowledge, skills and abilities demonstrated by organization members that are critical to the effective and efficient function of the organization. (Nelson, Essien, Latoff, & Wiesner, 1997)

In recent years, public health organizations have concentrated on developing competencies for their professions, including those addressing functional roles in emergency preparedness, planning, and response.

The importance of having a public health workforce that is competent in the area of disaster response cannot be understated. HRSA's document, The Key Ingredient of the National Prevention Initiative: Workforce Development, highlights the following Healthy People 2010 Workforce-related Objectives:

23-8. Increase the proportion of Federal, Tribal, State, and local agencies that incorporate specific competencies in the Essential Public Health Services into personnel systems.

23-9. Increase the proportion of schools for public health workers that integrate into their curricula specific content to develop competency in essential public health services.

23-10. Increase the proportion of Federal, Tribal, State and local public health agencies that provide continuing education to develop competency in essential public health services for their employees.

Project Background

The database included in this project, developed by The Temple University Center for Preparedness Research, Education, and Practice (C-PREP), is the result of an identification of existing competencies.

Competencies that are included in this project meet the following three criteria:

  1. They are specific to emergency preparedness.
  2. They were developed by a peer-reviewed system or multi-institutional group of identified leaders in the field.
  3. They can be applied to one or more of the functional categories included in this project.

The following competency sources are included in the database:

Competencies in the database pertain to groups of professionals (functional categories) that have public health responsibilities in the event of a natural or man-made emergency.

Competencies in the database were numbered and organized based on Functional Category, Key Topics, and Disaster Phase. An additional, cognitive-skill Level category was included, based on the verbs used in the competencies.

**NOTE**: These competencies have been written to express a standard level of performance in the workplace, and may incorporate multiple skills and knowledge areas into each statement. Persons accumulate competencies over a period of time, through a combination of experience, performance support systems, and trainings (both formal and informal). Professionals must keep in mind that trainings may contribute towards competencies, but no single training should be understood to impart complete competency in any one area or skill set.