Public Health England and the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) have published a report and toolkit which aims to support healthcare professionals record and measure their public health impact.
‘Everyday Interactions’was developed in close collaboration with representative bodies and individuals working in AHP professional groups.
It was also informed by a national survey of healthcare professionals and input from an expert advisory group.
The findings from the survey of healthcare professionals showed that the majority (70%) believe protecting and promoting the public’s health is important.
Despite this fewer than 1 in 5 (19%) currently measure the public health impact of their day to day work.
The toolkit provides healthcare professionals the means to record and collate their work so it makes an impact.
- Do – focuses on the brief intervention a healthcare professional might undertake with their patient or client, such as signposting to relevant services;
- Record – this relates to what information the healthcare professional would record, such as categorising a referral and recording measurements, such as BMI;
- Collate – is about capturing the data over a period of time for multiple individuals;
- Impact – brings all of this together and captures the likely impact their service is having in a local area, as well as the national public health priorities that these interventions will impact upon;
Linda Hindle, Public Health England’s Lead Allied Health Professional, said: “Allied Health Professionals regularly provide public health support and advice as ‘part of the job’ and this toolkit helps them record and measure their public health contribution in identifying health inequalities and ultimately in preventing early deaths.”
In addition to the report, RSPH has also developed a free e-learning package for healthcare professionals to provide them with an easy to use guide.
The report along with access to the e-learning is available https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-services/training/programmes/everyday-interactions-seminar-series.html