title: Building health promotion capacity in a primary health care workforce in the Northern Territory: some lessons from practice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Reorientation of the workforce in primary health care is a complex process and requires specific strategies and interventions. Primary health care providers are a key health care workforce that is expected to deliver tangible outcomes from disease prevention and health promotion strategies. This paper describes a training intervention that occurred as part of a broader participatory action research process for building health promotion capacity in the primary health care workforce.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participatory action research (PAR) was conducted over six action and reflection cycles in a two-year period (2001-02) in an urban community health setting in the Northern Territory. One of the PAR cycles was a training intervention that was identified as a need from a survey in the first action and reflection cycle. This training was facilitated by a health promotion specialist, face-to-face and comprised five 3.5-h sessions over a 5-month period. A pre-post questionnaire was used to measure the knowledge and skills components of the training intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results reinforced the importance of using a participatory approach that involved the primary health care providers themselves. Multiple strategies such as workforce development within capacity building frameworks assisted in shifting work practice more upstream. Additionally, these strategies encouraged more reflective practice and built social capital within the primary health care workforce.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lessons from practice reinforce that workforce development influenced work practice change and is an important element in building the health promotion capacity of primary health care centres. SO WHAT?: Workforce development is critical for reorienting health services. Health promotion specialists play an important role in reorienting practice, which is only effective when combined with other strategies, and driven and led by the primary health care workforce.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine Health and Molecular Science, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4814, Australia.
authors.forename: Jenni
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Judd
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University (Alfred Campus), Melbourne, Vic. 3004, Australia.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Keleher
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D057191:Capacity Building / Q000379:methods*; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015876:Northern Territory; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013192:Staff Development / Q000379:methods*; D000078329:Workforce; D055815:Young Adult