D&I Launchpad Supports Public Health Training with E2I Award

The Dissemination & Implementation (D&I) Launchpad™ team announced their sixth Evidence to Implementation (E2I) Award this spring. With support from the Wisconsin Partnership Program, E2I awards support the creation of a unique service package to support the dissemination and implementation of an evidence-based intervention or innovation.

This year’s award was made to Susan Zahner, DrPH, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Nursing, for the New to Public Health (N2PH) Residency Program.

N2PH is a 12-month online residency program for new public health professionals in their first year of employment in a governmental health department. The N2PH Program seeks to support their transition to public health practice, help them gain greater competency for evidence-based public health practice, enhance their confidence in addressing the challenges of public health work, and develop high satisfaction and clear intentions to remain in public health practice. Jane Mahoney, ICTR Director of the D&I Launchpad, comments,

We are very pleased to support Dr. Zahner’s innovative approach to supporting the public health workforce through a residency program. This E2I award will support course completion, creation of a robust website to support the program, and development of recruitment, marketing, communications, and business planning for program sustainability.

Early testing of the program has shown that there is a strong demand for online public health trainings in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Significantly, the National Association of Public Health Nurses has committed to future collaboration on national dissemination of N2PH.

Zahner leveraged several ICTR resources to develop N2PH, including the Wisconsin Public Health Research Network, the Wisconsin Network for Research Services, and the ICTR Pilot Award Program (2019 D&I Research Award). Most recently, she was one of three 2021 Champions of Humanistic Care named by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation for compassion and courage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more

Now in its third year, the E2I Award Program assists investigators who have developed high impact, evidence-based health care interventions to implement their research findings in clinical and community settings. Beyond direct financial support, each E2I team receives D&I Launchpad resources to develop toolkits, marketing materials, and business plans.