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Real World Feedback: How Well Did the Virtual Training Academy Prepare California's COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workforce?

To effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, California had to quickly mobilize a substantial number of case investigators (CIs) and contact tracers (CTs). This workforce was comprised primarily of redirected civil servants with diverse educational and professional backgrounds. The purpose of th...

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Autores principales: Westfall, Miranda, Forster, Maeve, Golston, Olivia, Taylor, Kelly D., White, Karen, Reid, Michael J. A., Dorian, Alina, Prelip, Michael L., Shafir, Shira
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9273764/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35836992
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.857674
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author Westfall, Miranda
Forster, Maeve
Golston, Olivia
Taylor, Kelly D.
White, Karen
Reid, Michael J. A.
Dorian, Alina
Prelip, Michael L.
Shafir, Shira
author_facet Westfall, Miranda
Forster, Maeve
Golston, Olivia
Taylor, Kelly D.
White, Karen
Reid, Michael J. A.
Dorian, Alina
Prelip, Michael L.
Shafir, Shira
author_sort Westfall, Miranda
collection PubMed
description To effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, California had to quickly mobilize a substantial number of case investigators (CIs) and contact tracers (CTs). This workforce was comprised primarily of redirected civil servants with diverse educational and professional backgrounds. The purpose of this evaluation was to understand whether the weeklong, remote course developed to train California's CI/CT workforce (i.e., Virtual Training Academy) adequately prepared trainees for deployment. From May 2020 to February 2021, 8,141 individuals completed the training. A survey administered ~3 weeks post-course assessed two measures of overall preparedness: self-perceived interviewing proficiency and self-perceived job preparedness. Bivariate analyses were used to examine differences in preparedness scores by education level, career background, and whether trainees volunteered to join the COVID-19 workforce or were assigned by their employers. There were no significant differences in preparedness by education level. Compared to trainees from non-public health backgrounds, those from public health fields had higher self-perceived interviewing proficiency (25.1 vs. 23.3, p < 0.001) and job preparedness (25.7 vs. 24.0, p < 0.01). Compared to those who were assigned, those who volunteered to join the workforce had lower self-perceived job preparedness (23.8 vs. 24.9, p = 0.02). While there were some statistically significant differences by trainee characteristics, the practical significance was small (<2-point differences on 30-point composite scores), and it was notable that there were no differences by education level. Overall, this evaluation suggests that individuals without bachelor's degrees or health backgrounds can be rapidly trained and deployed to provide critical disease investigation capacity during public health emergencies.
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spelling pubmed-92737642022-07-13 Real World Feedback: How Well Did the Virtual Training Academy Prepare California's COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workforce? Westfall, Miranda Forster, Maeve Golston, Olivia Taylor, Kelly D. White, Karen Reid, Michael J. A. Dorian, Alina Prelip, Michael L. Shafir, Shira Front Public Health Public Health To effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, California had to quickly mobilize a substantial number of case investigators (CIs) and contact tracers (CTs). This workforce was comprised primarily of redirected civil servants with diverse educational and professional backgrounds. The purpose of this evaluation was to understand whether the weeklong, remote course developed to train California's CI/CT workforce (i.e., Virtual Training Academy) adequately prepared trainees for deployment. From May 2020 to February 2021, 8,141 individuals completed the training. A survey administered ~3 weeks post-course assessed two measures of overall preparedness: self-perceived interviewing proficiency and self-perceived job preparedness. Bivariate analyses were used to examine differences in preparedness scores by education level, career background, and whether trainees volunteered to join the COVID-19 workforce or were assigned by their employers. There were no significant differences in preparedness by education level. Compared to trainees from non-public health backgrounds, those from public health fields had higher self-perceived interviewing proficiency (25.1 vs. 23.3, p < 0.001) and job preparedness (25.7 vs. 24.0, p < 0.01). Compared to those who were assigned, those who volunteered to join the workforce had lower self-perceived job preparedness (23.8 vs. 24.9, p = 0.02). While there were some statistically significant differences by trainee characteristics, the practical significance was small (<2-point differences on 30-point composite scores), and it was notable that there were no differences by education level. Overall, this evaluation suggests that individuals without bachelor's degrees or health backgrounds can be rapidly trained and deployed to provide critical disease investigation capacity during public health emergencies. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9273764/ /pubmed/35836992 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.857674 Text en Copyright © 2022 Westfall, Forster, Golston, Taylor, White, Reid, Dorian, Prelip and Shafir. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Westfall, Miranda
Forster, Maeve
Golston, Olivia
Taylor, Kelly D.
White, Karen
Reid, Michael J. A.
Dorian, Alina
Prelip, Michael L.
Shafir, Shira
Real World Feedback: How Well Did the Virtual Training Academy Prepare California's COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workforce?
title Real World Feedback: How Well Did the Virtual Training Academy Prepare California's COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workforce?
title_full Real World Feedback: How Well Did the Virtual Training Academy Prepare California's COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workforce?
title_fullStr Real World Feedback: How Well Did the Virtual Training Academy Prepare California's COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workforce?
title_full_unstemmed Real World Feedback: How Well Did the Virtual Training Academy Prepare California's COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workforce?
title_short Real World Feedback: How Well Did the Virtual Training Academy Prepare California's COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workforce?
title_sort real world feedback: how well did the virtual training academy prepare california's covid-19 contact tracing workforce?
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9273764/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35836992
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.857674
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