By (October 14, 2008)

Public Health Live Broadcasts Keep Nurses, Physicians Up to Date

Our well-being depends on the continuing education of nurses, physicians, and other public health workers who are often too busy to attend classes; the Public Health Live series is a great way for public health workers to keep up with the broad range of issues they need to be aware of in their field. In May of 1999, nearly a decade ago, the first Third Thursday Breakfast Broadcast (T�B�) on The History of Public Health aired. Since then, the broadcasts have covered everything from bioterrorism and domestic violence to teenage pregnancy.

�Public health workers are busy people and don�t have a lot of time to seek out continuing education,� said Director of Continuing Education Cheryl Reeves. Reeves is part of the University at Albany's School of Public Health staff, and has been involved with the broadcasts since the first one in 1999. �Our free broadcasts provide an easy and convenient way for people to get continuing education on public health topics right in their workplaces.�

T�B�, now known as Public Health Live, is a monthly satellite broadcast designed to help busy public health workers continue their education. Along with the School of Public Health, the broadcast has a mission to provide quality education to improve public health. Public Health Live reaches all 50 states and every continent: the program has regular viewers in England and Zimbabwe. Combining satellite television broadcasts with Internet Web-streaming makes the information accessible and enables the broadcasts to reach a large number of people. 

While the primary audience is public health workers in local and state health departments, the broadcasts are often of interest to a wide variety of people. The most recent broadcast, Walking to School, provided valuable information for school officials, planners and transportation officials.

The broadcasts are created by individuals from the UAlbany School of Public Health, NYS Department of Health, NYS Association of County Health Officials, and NYS Nurses Association. The agencies come together to develop topics or respond to requests by other groups or the viewers. The programs air on New York Network, a service of the State University of New York, as well as public access cable channels all over the country.

The upcoming broadcast, Addiction: Occupational Hazard for Nurses, is scheduled to air Oct. 16 at 9 a.m. Archives of past broadcasts are available as Web casts on the Public Health Live Web site.