Competency evaluation index system for Chinese global health professionals.

Objective To construct a competency evaluation index system for Chinese public health professionals engaged in global health, providing a measurement tool for the selection and assessment of health professionals for overseas positions in international and regional organizations related to global health.

Methods A preliminary competency evaluation index system for Chinese public health professionals engaged in global health was established through literature review. Twenty-six experts with extensive experience in global health were selected for three rounds of Delphi expert consultation. The analytic hierarchy process was used to calculate the weights of indicators at each level.

Results The expert positive coefficient for the three rounds of expert consultation were 100%, 92.3%, and 92.3%, respectively. The expert authority coefficient were 0.89, 0.91, and 0.91, respectively. Kendall′s W coefficient of concordance for expert opinions were 0.151, 0.159, and 0.150 (all P<0.001), respectively, indicating good agreement among experts. The competency index system for Chinese public health professionals engaged in global health, constructed after expert consultation, includes 18 first-level indicators and 58 second-level indicators across three domains: basic professional qualities, core competencies, and management abilities. The mean scores of expert ratings on the importance of each indicator in the three rounds of consultation were (4.54±0.42), (4.53±0.40), and (4.53±0.40), respectively. The coefficients of variation were 3.95%–18.33%, 5.74%–16.25%, and 5.74%–16.25%, respectively. In the constructed evaluation index system, the weights of the first-level indicators ranged from 0.021 2 to 0.139 4, the weights of the second-level indicators ranged from 0.077 8 to 0.750 0, and the comprehensive weights ranged from 0.003 1 to 0.058 3.

Conclusions The competency evaluation index system for Chinese public health professionals engaged in global health constructed in this study has good scientific validity and reliability, and can provide theoretical support and practical tools for the development of a global health talent pool among Chinese health professionals.