Pacific basin health worker training in the United States-Affiliated Pacific Islands: needs assessment and priorities for a continuing health care professional development program: executive summary.

The United States-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) include the U.S. Flag Territories of American Samoa and Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and three Freely Associated States: the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the Republic of Palau. These six jurisdictions span four time zones and are separated by over 4,000 miles of the Pacific. There has been a well documented need for continuing education (CE)for health workers in the USAPI region. This executive summary highlights key points from a series of CE needs assessments conducted in the region in 2004. These reports are presented in their entirety (pages 31-88) in this issue.