Education and Training for Practioners

A code of ethics is meaningless if it remains theoretical and doesn’t affect daily practices. It must be accompanied by policies and resources that facilitate and encourage its implementation. The following are some to consider.

1. Incorporate the Code into the training of public health professionals through educational curricula and on-the-job training.

2. Include ethics training among the accreditation criteria for academic degree programs.

3. Establish a set of competencies for practicing ethical public health, then ensure those competencies are taught in degree programs and on-the-job training.

4. Write a pledge of ethical behavior to include in graduation ceremonies.

5. Include ethical performance in annual employee evaluations and after-action reviews.

6. Enact policies of accountability to the public. They might include, for example, a website that announces public meetings and makes available documents and data.

7. Establish guidance and resources for ethical processes such as decision-making

8. Write case studies of ethical challenges and responses. Include both successes and failures.

9. Establish a professional forum for discussing ethical challenges in public health.

10. Establish an award or other forms of recognition for ethical behavior to be given in annual public health meetings.

11. Create a poster of the code of ethics to display in public health workplaces.

12. Establish indicators to evaluate the achievement of each ethical principle.