The public health workforce: An assessment in the Netherlands

The public health workforce is a key resource of population health. How many people work in public health in the Netherlands, what are their characteristics and who does what? Remarkably, such information about the size and composition of the public health workforce in the Netherlands is lacking. A standardized system to collect these data is also unavailable.
This thesis introduces a new methodology to enumerate the public health workforce. By applying it to environmental public health and preventive youth health care, our insight in the quantity and quality of the current and future public health workforce in the Netherlands has increased.
The studies described in this thesis are among the first scientific studies into public health workforce enumeration in the Netherlands and the results contribute to an empirical base for public health workforce planning and development.