Professionalizing health promotion? Some reflections from the European context. [¿Profesionalizar la promoción de la salud? Algunas reflexiones desde el contexto europeo]

Professionalising health promotion? Reflections from the European context P. Contu Globalisation has not only had economic and financial repercussions, but has also impacted the social, cultural and education spheres. One of these effects is the development of processes to achieve accreditation of academic programmes, and the regulation of certified professionals in various fields including public health and health promotion. The work presented here reflects on challenges the health promotion field faces in the European continent. These efforts present data on undergraduate training in health promotion as perceived by autonomous professionals and on the definition of core competencies in health promotion that would be integrated in curricula for training distinct types of workforces. Finally, we present the CompHP project that endeavoured to contribute to the strengthening of an identity for European professionals who work in health promotion, and its recognition in the labour market. (Global Health Promotion, 2012; 19(4): 88-90)