Seminar: Regional Framework of Teaching Competencies in Public Health (RFTCPH) - Competence Evaluation and Experiences with Validation

The Virtual Campus for Public Health (VCPH) is the educational platform of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and a strategic tool for technical cooperation that seeks to contribute to the development of the capabilities and competencies of health workers by supporting the transformation of public health services and practices in the Region of the Americas. It functions as a decentralized network of people, institutions and organizations that share open educational courses and resources on public health topics relevant to the countries of the region, using information and communication technologies.

In 2022, the VCPH and the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) developed the joint initiative to build the Regional Framework of Teaching Competencies in Public Health (RFTCPH), with the purpose of having a useful regional tool to guide training of teachers in the Region of the Americas. The initiative brought together 123 experts from 19 countries in the Region of the Americas representing academic institutions, and public health schools, and primary care professionals. Through collaborative work a framework was developed which included 10 domains and 40 associated competencies.

In 2023, the VCPH and the ASPPH built an evaluation strategy based on the RFTCPH, through the development and programming of a competency evaluation module. This module was validated in two phases: first by 115 experts from 53 academic institutions in 20 countries in the region, and subsequently by 1161 teachers from 85 academic institutions in 21 countries of the region. The comments from both processes were compiled, and currently a committee of 30 experts from 15 countries is working on updating and refining the competency evaluation module.