The National Laboratory Training Network (NLTN) is a collaborative training system of the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its mission is to improve laboratory practice of public health significance through quality continuing education.
The NLTN consists of four field staff locations in public health laboratories, staffed by laboratory training specialists who work with the state public health laboratory training personnel, CDC education specialists, and subject matter experts to identify and fulfill training needs. The NLTN conducts training needs assessments, then develops and delivers quality, cost-effective training in a variety of formats. Although generally geared toward laboratorians, courses are also designed to target other healthcare workers, such as epidemiologists, nurses, infection control practitioners, physicians and public health sanitarians.
Since 1989, the NLTN has offered more than 4,000 workshops and trained more than 220,000 public health and clinical laboratorians. The NLTN has maintained a free lending library that is utilized by 600 customers each year.
To make training more convenient and accessible, the NLTN has created a variety of training products. One of these, workshops-in-a-box, is a packaged workshop offered as distance learning. Since 1995, over 450 sessions of workshops-in-a-box have trained more than 6,000 participants on high priority public health training topics. Another training product that has been developed, the molecular technology computer-assisted instructional module, is available on CD-ROM. In addition, NLTN has several self-study items available.
Additionally, the NLTN has developed the Public Health Series and Public Health Focus Courses to provide training that fulfills major needs unique to public health laboratories. Offered two or three times annually, these four to five day intensive hands-on workshops have trained almost 400 public health laboratorians in topics as diverse as laboratory detection of rabies, viruses and methods for advanced TB testing.
Answering an urgent need, the NLTN began to develop and deliver courses on emergency preparedness and bioterrorism in January 1999. To date, the NLTN has delivered more than 200 courses, training more than 8,000 students from all 50 states.
The NLTN has a proven track record of mobilizing training resources to quickly address emergent health needs. The NLTN constantly strengthens its national focus of training efforts, maintaining and enhancing partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies, academia and industry, and promoting the public health laboratory community. Looking to the future, the NLTN recognizes that an expanding variety of formats for laboratory training delivery are necessary in order to address the changing needs of a dynamic laboratory community.
For more information, please contact:
Eva Perlman, MPH, Senior Director of Professional Development
240.485.2773 | eva.perlman@aphl.org