Cultivating Workforce Competencies to Promote Implementation and Evidence Use in Health and Human Services: An Evaluation of the Certificate Program for Implementation Practice

Background and Purpose: Efforts to implement evidence-informed interventions (program, practices, policies) in health and human services settings can be bolstered by professionals who possess the required competencies to effectively select, tailor, and apply a range of implementation strategies and tools that are appropriate to the specific context and setting, while supporting the development of trusting relationships among key stakeholders and the co-creation of implementation goals with community partners. The Certificate Program in Implementation Practice was developed to provide professionals with the relational (e.g., team building) and technical (e.g., using data for improvement) skills needed to implement evidence-informed interventions effectively and equitably within their service settings to yield desirable and equitable population outcomes. The certificate program consists of three two-day courses (online and synchronous) with content grounded in 15 core competencies for implementation support practitioners (Albers et al., 2020; Metz et al., 2021) that cluster into one of the following core domains: Co-Creation and Engagement (Course 1), Ongoing Improvement (Course 2), and Sustaining Change (Course 3). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the certificate program following its completion by the inaugural cohort of participants in 2023.

Methods: The inaugural cohort included 44 professionals (75% female-identifying) from seven countries. Participants represented the following service types: child welfare, early childhood, public health, mental and behavioral health, K-12 education, criminal justice, and health. About 67% of respondents identified as white, 21% as Black/African American/African Descent, 6% Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 2% Native American. Following each of the three courses, participants completed surveys assessing course satisfaction and the practical utility of content. Consistent with the COM-B model of behavior change (Michie et al., 2011), the survey also included items related to participants’ capability of and motivation for using course learnings. Descriptive analyses were conducted to generate summary information about participant responses.

Results: Overall satisfaction across the three courses ranged from 98% to 100%. One-hundred percent, 98%, and 91% agreed or strongly agreed across Courses 1, 2, and 3, respectively, that the knowledge and skills they gained were applicable to their professional practice. Between 97% and 100% of participants across Courses 1, 2, and 3 also agreed or strongly agreed that what they learned from the course would benefit their work supporting implementation. With respect to participants feeling capable of using what they learned in their work supporting implementation, 100%, 93%, and 100% agreed or strongly agreed across Courses 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Between 97% and 100% of participants across Courses 1, 2, and 3, also agreed or strongly agreed that they were motivated to use what they learned from the course in their work supporting implementation.

Conclusions and Implications: Taken together, our findings highlight strong and consistently positive reactions to course content among participants in the inaugural cohort of the Certificate Program in Implementation Practice. Findings from this study also demonstrate the feasibility of delivering a certificate program in implementation practice and growing a workforce that can affect change and support evidence use in public systems and communities to advance equity.