COVID-19 Health Education Activities: An Analysis of a National Sample of Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES/MCHES) in Response to the Global Pandemic

The National Commission of Health Education Credentialing, Inc. (NCHEC) created the Category 1 COVID-19 Claim Form Opportunity to document how Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) and Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES) assisted communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data submitted by CHES/MCHES ( = 3,098 claim forms), the purpose of this study was to (a) describe the settings where CHES and MCHES completed their pandemic work and (b) assess differences in the type of pandemic work completed by CHES compared with MCHES based on specific Areas of Responsibility (AOR) for Health Education Specialists. Findings showed that CHES and MCHES engaged in seven AOR during the pandemic, with the largest proportion of CHES ( = 859; 33%) and MCHES ( = 105; 21.9%, documenting COVID-19-related activities in health departments. CHES reported higher engagement than MCHES in activities such as COVID-19 reporting/tracking, χ (1, = 3,098) = 27.3, < .001; outbreak response, χ (1, = 3,098) = 4.3, = .039; and vaccination, χ (1, = 3,098) = 5.2, = .023. Conversely, MCHES reported higher participation than CHES in screening/testing, χ (1, = 3,098) = 174.2, < .001; administration of budgets/operations, χ (1, = 3,098) = 30.1, < .001; and adapting educational activities at college/universities, χ (1, = 3,098) = 46.1, < .001. CHES were more likely than MCHES to indicate working in all AOR except for Area 2-Plan Health Education/Promotion. Results support that employer-verified health education skills in all AOR were transferable during COVID-19, especially for CHES employed within state/county health departments.