Competencies for chronic disease practice

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published an article by Amy Slonim et al called "Designing Competencies for Chronic Disease Practice" (Prev Chronic Dis 2010: 7(2)). It describes a project of the US National Association of Chronic Disease Directors to develop a comprehensive set of competencies for public health practitioners working in chronic disease prevention and control, and the way knowledge and skills are used in this area of practice.

"The project yielded a framework with a categorization scheme and language that reflects how chronic disease practitioners view their work, including integrating communications and cultural competency skills into relevant job functions." This article is relevant to priority area 2 outlined in Australia’s first draft Primary Health Care Strategy ‘better management of chronic conditions’.