Assessing the professional development needs of public health professionals.

This article describes the major activities associated with designing and implementing a comprehensive, professional development needs assessment of public health professionals in four states of the South Central region of the United States. The instrumentation, research design, and summary results of the needs assessment described in this article may facilitate similar efforts by interested researchers and program developers to assess the public health professional workforce training needs. Results of needs assessments can be useful in designing and evaluating professional development curricula and activities to strengthen public health services in the United States.