The Maternal and Child Health Journal, in collaboration with MCHB and the National MCH Workforce Development Center, released a special issue in September 2022. This special issue highlights original research, commentaries, innovations, and policy & program evaluations for state public health agencies, academic institutions, and community-based organizations.
Use these open-access publications to advance workforce development for current and future maternal and child health (MCH) professionals.
Access the Special Issue, Containing 25 Open Access Articles
Featured Articles
We would like to highlight the following articles:
Future Directions
- Developing and Strengthening the Current and Future MCH Public Health Workforce: Building Capacity, Aligning Systems and Addressing Emerging Challenges
An introduction to the special issue that highlights key themes across published articles and outlines the desired future state of the MCH public health workforce in 10–15 years. - Building the MCH Public Health Workforce of the Future: A Call to Action from the MCHB Strategic Plan
Outlines 13 recommendations to advance Goal 3 of MCHB’s strategic plan (PDF - 590 KB) around workforce capacity and discusses the need to support pathways into MCH public health, build a diverse workforce, and increase capacity to address inequities and social determinants of health.
Undergraduate Career Pathways
- Learning from Graduate and Undergraduate Public Health Virtual Internship Experiences with State Title V Agencies During COVID-19, Summer 2020
Chronicles the successful results of undergraduate and graduate student Title V state agency internships, in which students gained a variety of skills and direct exposure to MCH work in state health department settings. - Maternal and Child Health Pipeline Training Programs: A Description of Training Across 6 Funded Programs
Summarizes the Leadership Education and Advancement in Undergraduate Pathways (LEAP) HRSA-funded maternal and child health training programs at six universities. These programs diversify the future MCH workforce by providing financial support, mentoring, training, internship, and research opportunities for undergraduate students. - Success of Maternal and Child Health Pipeline Training Programs: Alumni Survey Results
These programs, funded by HRSA since 2006, are opportunities for undergraduate students to gain experience and knowledge in MCH and public health. This evaluation highlights the successes and opportunities related to demographic characteristics, academic and career development among graduates, and attitudes towards the field of MCH.
Graduate Training
- The Critical Value of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) to Graduate Training in Public Health: A Framework to Guide Education, Research and Practice (PDF - 890 KB)
This commentary presents a framework that illustrates MCH contributions in education, research and evaluation, and practice within schools and programs of public health and underscores their collective foundation in the life course approach. - Developing a Public Health Maternal and Child Health Training Program: Lessons Learned from Five Schools of Public Health
Shares the successes and challenges of five HRSA-MCHB-funded Catalyst Programs in establishing MCH coursework at Schools of Public Health, supporting trainees from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and establishing partnerships with Title V
Building Capacity Within the Practicing MCH Workforce
- Enhancing Title V Workforce Capacity to Address Complex Challenges: Impact of the National Maternal and Child Health Workforce Development Center
Discusses the impact of the HRSA-funded MCH Workforce Development Center’s cohort training program and demonstrates that investment in the MCH workforce is critical for solving complex public health problems, such as health equity, access to care, and attention to social determinants of health. - Centering Equity and Developing the Maternal Health Workforce: Building the National Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center
Describes the development of the HRSA-funded Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center, a national initiative designed to enhance capacity of maternal health practitioners across the U.S. through equity-centered engagement, innovation, and policy. - Implementation of an Individual + Policy, System, and Environmental (I + PSE) Technical Assistance Initiative to Increase Capacity of MCH Nutrition Strategic Planning
This practice-based research paper presents facilitators and barriers to applying individual plus policy, systems, and environmental (I + PSE) approaches to tackle complex public health problems such as childhood obesity.
Advancing Equity
- Developing an Anti-Racist Foundations Course in MCH for MPH Students
Describes one approach to building anti-racist MCH training into a graduate-level introductory MCH course so that students will be able to think critically and address issues of structural racism in their future MCH and public health work. - Health Impact Assessment: A Missed Opportunity for MCH Professionals in Their Quest to Address the Social Determinants of Health
Explores how MCH stakeholders are engaged in Health Impact Assessments that systematically bring public health perspectives into non-health decision making contexts that influence the social determinants of health.
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