Department of Public Health, Area B, Dr. Steevens' Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dublin, Ireland.
Front Public Health. 2023 Jan 16;10:1072566. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1072566. eCollection 2022.
School closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the loss of educational and social supports for up to 1,000,000 students in Ireland and disproportionately affected students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. For the 2020/2021 school year, multisectoral and interdisciplinary "Schools Teams" were established within Public Health departments to maintain in-person education by minimizing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in schools. This study aimed to describe this model and explore the experiences of Schools Team members in the East of Ireland to identify factors that influenced effective working that can be sustained in the context of health systems and multisectoral recovery.
Schools Teams were comprised of multidisciplinary staff from regional Public Health departments and redeployed staff from the Education sector. Governance rested with Public Health departments. All staff operated to nationally agreed protocols following training. The experiences of the East Schools Team members were explored through an online survey and semi-structured interviews.
The survey response rate was 53/70 (75.7%). Participants reported clear channels of communication within the team (44, 83.0%), feeling comfortable in their role following training (43, 82.7%) and a positive team culture (51, 96.2%) as key facilitators of effective inter-disciplinary working. Insufficient administrative support and mixed messaging to schools were identified as barriers to efficient team collaboration.
The Schools Team model illustrates the potential for multisectoral partnerships to effectively address complex public health priorities and contribute toward health system resilience to health threats. By recognizing and leveraging the ability of allied sectors such as the education sector, to contribute to public health goals, countries can move toward the kind of whole-of-government approach to health recognized as key to health system resilience. The strong links between the education and public health sectors developed through this collaboration could be extended and strengthened to more effectively pursue public health priorities in school settings. More broadly, mechanisms to support multisectoral working should be developed, expanding beyond reactive interventions to proactively address key health priorities and build resilience across health systems and communities. Such collaborations would promote healthier populations by promoting and encouraging a public health perspective among other sectors and embedding "health in all policies".
与 COVID-19 大流行相关的学校关闭导致爱尔兰多达 100 万名学生失去了教育和社会支持，而社会经济背景较低的学生受到的影响不成比例。对于 2020/2021 学年，公共卫生部门内部成立了多部门和跨学科的“学校团队”，通过最大限度地减少 SARS-CoV-2 在学校中的传播，以维持面对面教育。本研究旨在描述这一模式，并探讨爱尔兰东部学校团队成员的经验，以确定影响有效工作的因素，这些因素可以在卫生系统和多部门复苏的背景下持续下去。
学校团队由区域公共卫生部门的多学科工作人员和教育部门重新部署的工作人员组成。治理由公共卫生部门负责。所有工作人员在接受培训后按照国家商定的协议开展工作。通过在线调查和半结构化访谈探索东学校团队成员的经验。
调查的回复率为 53/70（75.7%）。参与者报告说，团队内部有明确的沟通渠道（44 人，83.0%），培训后对自己的角色感到舒适（43 人，82.7%），团队文化积极（51 人，96.2%），这些都是有效跨学科工作的关键促进因素。调查还发现，行政支持不足和向学校传达的信息不一致是团队协作效率低下的障碍。
学校团队模式说明了多部门伙伴关系有效解决复杂公共卫生优先事项的潜力，并有助于卫生系统对健康威胁的恢复力。通过认识到并利用教育等相关部门为实现公共卫生目标做出贡献的能力，各国可以朝着整个政府对卫生系统恢复力的方法迈进。通过这种合作建立的教育和公共卫生部门之间的紧密联系可以进一步扩展和加强，以便更有效地在学校环境中追求公共卫生优先事项。更广泛地说，应该制定支持多部门工作的机制，超越反应性干预措施，主动解决关键健康优先事项，并在卫生系统和社区内建立恢复力。这种合作将通过在其他部门中促进和鼓励公共卫生观点，并将“健康融入所有政策”，促进更健康的人口。
