2008 Model Practice Application (Public)

Training Plans for the Field of Environmental Health

Benton County Environmental Health

Goal: To ensure that environmental health specialist/sanitarians have met the core competencies to practice in the field of environmental health. Problem: Many local environmental health departments do not often have the time, training, expertise, or staff to fully develop new or existing environmental health specialists/sanitarians. Often staff is left to learn the profession on their own with little guidance on existing rules, procedures, resources, training opportunities, etc. What is this practice intended to accomplish: Training plans have been developed by Benton County Environmental Health to give environmental health specialist/sanitarians a tool where they can systematically complete training on rules, standards, policy and procedure, resources or contacts they will need to develop to be fully successful in the field of environmental health. These same tools give managers a way to quickly assess the employee’s progress and to identify areas where the employee may need additional help or coaching. Training plans have been developed for a broad ranges of environmental health practices that include: animal bites for the control of rabies, bed and breakfast inspections, day care inspections, emergency response, food safety, food borne/waterborne disease outbreak investigations, onsite septic, organizational camp inspections, recreational park inspections, solid waste and recycling, sanitary surveys of public water systems, school inspections, swimming pool and spa inspections, tourist accommodation inspections.

A Local health departments need to be able to document that their staff are properly trained to perform work in the environmental health field. The training plans help managers and employees document that they have received appropriate training. The training plans for the first time establishes a process for documenting and monitoring training in a broad range of environmental health fields. Often new environmental health specialists/sanitarians are trained using the "Magic Apron String" approach to training where they follow an "experience" environmental health specialist/sanitarian for a period of time. Once they become minimally proficient they are often allowed to perform inspections on their own. Often follow-up work to assess their training and progress is haphazard to nonexistent. The basic concept for the training plan is an extension of work performed in the Southwest Region of FDA for Food Standardization Officers. The training plans have now been extended to a much broader field of environmental health.

Training plans have been shared with the Conference of Local Environmental Health Supervisors (CLEHS) in Oregon.

Staff time to edit documents for local or state jurisdiction estimated at between four to eight hours. Approximately one hour per plan on average. Since these training plans are designed to be living documents edit time should be kept to a minimum with staff instructed to make obvious changes such as editing in references to state or local laws. These training plans are most useful when the supervisor encourages staff to offer recommendations for changes as they complete the training plans. Edit time should be minimal. License fees or general revenue can be used to pay for this project. Most states have requirements for continuing education of registered or licensed environmental health specialist/sanitarians.

Activity: 1) Prerequisites: Any prerequisites needed to work in the field must be completed. 2) Familiarization & Preparatory Training: Any classroom, self-taught or mentored training that will allow the sanitarian to demonstrate the necessary knowledge to be successful must be completed. 3) Field Training and Experience: a) Determine the minimum number of joint training inspections required by which time the sanitarian should have developed the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform inspections independently. b) Determine the minimum number of independent inspections necessary to assure that the sanitarian has developed the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform inspections independently. Detailed quality assurance/quality control review and joint sign-off by a second Registered Environmental Health Specialist until a pattern of acceptable performance has been demonstrated. 4) Currency: Define the minimum number of inspections and time frame in which the inspections must be performed in order to maintain currency. 5) Advance Training: Identify advance training that would be useful for developing the sanitarian to a higher level of performance beyond the ability to perform routine inspections/work. 6) Timeframe: Training plans can be completed in 30 days for initial orientation. Program specialties can be completed in six months to one year.

License fees or general revenue can be used to pay for this project. Most states have requirements for continuing education of registered or licensed environmental health specialist/sanitarians.

Managers and employees can document progress and accomplishments in meeting core competencies and completing the training plans.