Lab Matters Summer 2018 | Page 92

APHL 2018 Annual Meeting Poster Abstracts

Workforce Development from the experience as well. Having to explain the benefits of QA makes one more familiar and fluent in the description of their craft. It is gratifying to know that the information being passed on will help develop future laboratory personnel. The field of Quality Assurance can be very fulfilling particularly when employee engagement with interns and co-workers provide positive outcomes, lending a greater appreciation of their work. This is“ what the student leaves behind”.

Presenter: Sharon Robinson, New Jersey Department of Health, Ewing, NJ, Phone: 609.530.2818, Email: sharon. robinson @ doh. nj. gov

Advancing Public Health Laboratory Websites: Northern Plains Consortium— Emerging Leaders Program

H. Sease 1, S. Alexander 1, K. Manion 2, L. Beasley-Morrison 3, G. Stevens 4, W. Lutkemeier 5; 1 North Dakota Department of Health, Bismarck, ND, 2 Montana Public Health Laboratory, Helena, MT,

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Idaho Bureau of Laboratories, Boise, ID, 4 Wyoming Public Health Laboratory, Cheyenne, WY, 5 South Dakota Public Health Laboratory, Pierre, SD

Background: The Northern Plains Consortium( NPC), consisting of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota Wyoming and later Idaho, was formed in 2006. The intent was to develop a regional public health laboratory system where collaboration and laboratory system improvement activities could be established across the region. In 2014 a consortium-wide need for succession planning was recognized and our regional Emerging Leaders Program( ELP) was born. Cohort 1 of the regional ELP occurred in 2015 and our current ELP, Cohort 2, commenced in 2017. Each state selected an individual to participate in the program that highlighted leadership, communication, behavior style and grant knowledge in a public health setting.

Methods: The participants of each cohort identified and worked on a group project. Cohort 2 chose to advance each of their own state’ s public health laboratory websites to provide the most user-friendly access as well as disseminating the most up-to-date and pertinent information to the residents of their states. A review was conducted where the participants compared the websites and created a spreadsheet for identifying the types of changes to be completed. This spreadsheet was shared on an APHL SharePoint site that was accessible to all members. Among the considerations was working towards updating the websites to meet the Americans with Disability Act( ADA) compliance. Also identified was a need to create a common page describing the NPC for each state’ s website. Once a plan was in place, each participant was responsible for updating their respective state’ s website.

Results: A webpage was created and hosted on Idaho’ s website to discuss the various aspects of the NPC. Included are a description of the NPC, the consortium’ s mission, recent publications and links to each states’ websites. In turn, each state has a link to the NPC site on their webpage. In addition, some states updated their websites to meet ADA regulations, using computer programs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point and Adobe Pro to conform non-compliant electronic documents. A major goal of the states for ADA compliance is ensuring that the content is available to everyone, including the disabled.

Conclusion: The NPC continues to represent a regional effort to improve PHL systems and increase efficiencies. The activities through the ELP have enabled each state to advance their own state public health websites to increase efficiency and enhance public knowledge of our capabilities. Each PHL is working within its own state to roll out the finalized website updates in 2018. Since technology is ever evolving, each state will continue to monitor and update information as needed.

Presenter: Heather Sease, MLS( ASCP), North Dakota Department of Health, Division of Microbiology, Bismarck, ND, Phone: 701.328.6279, Email: hrsease @ nd. gov

An International Collaboration to Develop Laboratory Leadership Competencies to Strengthen Laboratory Workforce Development in Support of Global Health Security

( complete abstract in Global Health, p. 61)