How to develop public health leaders for the 21st Century

Skills to work across disciplines and especially trans-disciplinary education are essential for leadership in public health. Further, effective leadership skills are required to affect constructive change in health care settings and practices. Several influential professional development programs such as Health Care Management (HCM) program developed and delivered by Project Hope. The project Developing European Leadership Through Action-learning in Healthcare (DELTAH) aimed to improve the performance of participating healthcare organisations through fostering the level of leadership skills amongst healthcare managers. However, few programmes have been developed to equip public health professionals with leadership competencies which specifically reflect public health discipline. “Leaders for European Public Health” (LEPHIE) Project funded by the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme was designed to develop a curriculum for European Public Health Leaders. The public health leadership content is aimed to be applicable to the performance in diverse European Public Health practices and contexts and reflects the priorities and objectives of the European Health Program. The programme is competence based. A competency framework has been developed to support the curriculum and facilitate self-assessment. The Module uses innovative training methods, such as problem-based and blended learning formats. We believe that the integration of modern technology with a collaborative approach to learning by professionals, supported by interdisciplinary competency-based educational design, will result in a transformative learning experience.