Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 121, Issue 6, June 2007, Pages 432-437
Public Health

Minisymposium
Trainees’ experiences of multidisciplinary public health training schemes in England

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2007.02.007Get rights and content

Summary

From 1999 onwards most English NHS regions launched multidisciplinary public health training schemes. These schemes were open to those from backgrounds other than medicine and followed on from the announcement of a new multidisciplinary Public Health Specialist post—a post equivalent to the traditional medical Consultant in Public Health Medicine. This article documents the issues arising during the first few years of the multidisciplinary public health training schemes. It also includes a number of case studies from trainees who have passed through the training schemes, examining the positive and negative experiences of these trainees. The paper reveals how the schemes initially varied considerably by region, in respect of pay and other terms and conditions. The case studies from ex-trainees reveal a number of positive and negative features of the training schemes.

Introduction

This article documents the issues arising during the first few years of the multidisciplinary public health training schemes in England. The focus is on England, rather than other countries within the UK, as the training schemes were first launched in the English NHS regions. As well as looking at some of the general issues, the paper also includes a number of case studies from trainees who have passed through the training schemes, examining the positive and negative experiences of these trainees.

Section snippets

Background to the development of the schemes

Although public health has long been recognised as a multidisciplinary profession, in the UK, training and career paths for those from backgrounds other than medicine have been limited.1, 2

In 1999 the Government recognised the need to address the issue, and announced the creation of a new multidisciplinary Public Health Specialist post.3 This post would be equivalent to the traditional Consultant in Public Health Medicine, a role previously reserved for medically qualified individuals who had

Developing a national network and addressing terms and conditions

Although the creation of the training schemes was a result of national policy, there was no national model for their development and each region was free to decide how they organised their training scheme. As the case studies demonstrate, this led to considerable variation in length of training, pay and conditions, and entry criteria across the regional schemes.5, 8 Those who began training in the first wave of multidisciplinary schemes began to realise that the extent to which trainees were

Case studies

Case study 1

Alison Pritchard

Consultant in Public Health, Training Scheme 2000–2005

I’ve only been in my current post for 18 months but my life as a public health trainee seems very distant!

I joined the Trent Non-Medical Public Health Training Scheme (as it was then known) in 2000 along with eight other trainees. This was the first scheme of its kind in Trent and we felt very much like pioneers.

Initially the specialist training scheme in Trent was managed and funded separately from the medical

Conclusions

This paper has outlined the rationale for the creation of the multidisciplinary public health training schemes in England, and has highlighted some of the issues that have arisen during their development. One major issue was the lack of uniformity across the different regional programmes, in terms of issues such as pay, length of training, entry criteria and opportunity for participation in Health Protection on-call rotas. The impacts of these disparities and other issues on the training

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