CHES Area V: Managing Health Education Programs

Health education is not only about designing curricula or delivering workshops. Behind every successful program is a layer of administrative and management work that keeps things running, funded, staffed, and aligned with organizational goals. Area V of the CHES and MCHES exam tests your understanding of these operational competencies, and for good reason. Without effective management, even the most well-designed health education initiative will struggle to reach its intended audience.

Whether you are preparing for the certification exam or looking to strengthen your professional skill set, understanding how to administer and manage health education programs is essential. This article breaks down the key competencies within Area V and offers strategies for applying them on exam day and in practice.

For a broader look at how Area V fits into the full scope of the certification exam, review the overview of all eight Areas of Responsibility.

What Area V Covers

Area V addresses the organizational and operational side of health education. The competencies in this area focus on managing human resources, overseeing budgets, using technology to support programs, building partnerships, and ensuring quality across all program activities. These competencies apply whether you work in a community health organization, a hospital, a school district, or a government agency.

The sub-competencies within Area V emphasize practical skills: recruiting and training staff, managing program finances, coordinating with stakeholders, and applying leadership principles to guide teams. MCHES candidates can expect questions that go deeper into strategic planning, organizational development, and systems-level management.

Key Concepts in Area V

Human Resource Management

Health education programs depend on people. Human resource management in this context includes recruiting qualified staff, providing orientation and training, supervising day-to-day activities, and coordinating volunteers. You should understand how to match personnel to program needs, how to conduct performance evaluations, and how to create supportive work environments that reduce turnover.

Volunteer coordination is another important element. Many community-based programs rely heavily on volunteers, and health educators often serve as the bridge between organizational goals and volunteer capacity. Knowing how to recruit, train, and retain volunteers is a distinct skill that appears frequently in Area V content.

Budgeting and Financial Management

Managing money is a core administrative function. Health educators should be familiar with different types of budgets, including line-item budgets, which categorize expenses by type, and grant budgets, which align spending with funder requirements. Understanding how to develop, monitor, and justify a budget is critical.

Beyond creating budgets, you should understand cost-effectiveness analysis and how to demonstrate that a program delivers value relative to its cost. Funders and decision-makers want evidence that resources are being used wisely, and financial literacy helps health educators make that case.

Pro Tip: When studying budgeting concepts, practice reading sample budget tables and identifying common line items such as personnel, supplies, travel, and indirect costs. The exam may present scenarios where you need to determine the most appropriate budget category for a given expense.

Technology and Information Systems

Technology plays an increasingly important role in program administration. Health information systems help track participant data, monitor program outputs, and generate reports for stakeholders. You should be familiar with how databases, electronic health records, and program management software support health education activities.

Data security and confidentiality are also relevant here. As programs collect more participant information, health educators must understand basic data protection practices and comply with organizational policies regarding information management.

Building and Maintaining Partnerships and Coalitions

Few health education programs operate in isolation. Partnerships and coalitions extend the reach and impact of programs by connecting organizations with complementary strengths. Area V covers how to identify potential partners, establish memoranda of understanding, and maintain productive working relationships over time.

Coalition building requires an understanding of group dynamics, shared decision-making, and conflict resolution. Health educators who can navigate these interpersonal and organizational challenges are better positioned to sustain collaborative efforts across sectors.

Organizational Culture and Leadership

Effective management requires an awareness of organizational culture, the shared values, norms, and practices that shape how work gets done within an institution. Health educators should understand how culture influences program implementation and how to work within existing structures while advocating for change when necessary.

Leadership in health education is not limited to those in formal supervisory roles. Area V recognizes that health educators at every level can demonstrate leadership through initiative, communication, and commitment to professional standards.

Quality Assurance Processes

Quality assurance involves systematically monitoring program activities to ensure they meet established standards. This includes developing protocols, conducting internal reviews, and using feedback to improve processes. Quality assurance is closely related to the evaluation concepts covered in Area IV, but here the focus is on ongoing operational oversight rather than formal research or outcome evaluation.

Exam Application

Area V questions on the CHES exam typically present management scenarios and ask you to identify the most appropriate administrative action. You might be given a situation involving a budget shortfall and asked how to prioritize spending, or you might be asked to select the best approach for recruiting volunteers for a community health fair.

MCHES candidates may encounter more complex scenarios involving organizational restructuring, strategic planning, or multi-agency collaboration. In both cases, the exam rewards candidates who can think systematically about how programs are organized and sustained over time.

Pay attention to questions that require you to distinguish between management functions. For example, supervising staff is different from evaluating program outcomes, even though both involve assessment. The exam tests your ability to categorize activities correctly within the Areas of Responsibility framework.

Study Strategies for Area V

Start by reviewing real-world examples of program management. If you have professional experience, reflect on how budgets were developed, how staff were supervised, and how partnerships were maintained in your workplace. Connecting abstract competencies to concrete experiences will strengthen your recall on exam day.

Create a reference sheet of key terms: line-item budget, memorandum of understanding, quality assurance, cost-effectiveness, and organizational culture. For each term, write a brief definition and a scenario where it would apply.

Practice with scenario-based questions that require you to select the best management decision. Focus on understanding why one answer is better than the others, not just memorizing facts. For a structured approach to organizing your study time across all areas, see the CHES study plan guide.

Pro Tip: After studying Area V, move directly into Area VI: Serving as a Resource Person. Many management competencies, such as networking and stakeholder communication, overlap with the resource person role, and studying them together can reinforce your understanding of both areas.

Leading With Purpose

Administration and management may not be the most visible part of health education work, but they are among the most consequential. The decisions made behind the scenes, how budgets are allocated, how staff are supported, how partnerships are sustained, determine whether programs succeed or fall short. Mastering Area V prepares you not only for the CHES or MCHES exam but for the leadership responsibilities that come with advancing in the profession.

Health educators who understand management are better equipped to advocate for resources, navigate organizational politics, and build the infrastructure that allows programs to thrive. These are the competencies that turn good ideas into lasting impact.

This content is not affiliated with or endorsed by NCHEC. CHES and MCHES are registered trademarks of NCHEC.