As companies and public places are reopening across the globe, the old-school technique for healthcare prevention called contact tracing is gaining the limelight. It involves detective work of tracing down contacts in order to contain the transmission of mutated coronavirus. For contact tracing to be effective, it requires a strong, well-planned strategy to work on community setting and skilled contact tracing agents who can execute the process with utmost dexterity. Contact tracers perform rigorous interviews of contacts and follow the process of identify-trace-isolate to stop the COVID-19 virus from spreading in a community or neighborhood.
There are training modules and programs available for contact tracers that help them do better.
Foundation training at call centers
HIPAA compliant call centers that carry out contact tracing services as per local public healthcare guidelines provide the foundation training for contact tracing agents. It involves soft skills, empathy-led communication over phone and chat, quick interview tricks and conducting surveys, confidence building within oneself and within the contacts, and making agents aware of the systematic process that comprises collecting a list of COVID positive patients from public healthcare departments. Next step is to follow the contact and find out with whom they have met within 14 days. Then, the tracers have to get in touch with those potential suspects before it’s late and the virus is passed on to others. Monitoring those suspects and suggesting self-isolation are the steps to be followed next. Constant follow up is also crucial to learn about their symptoms and check on their activities.
National public health department funded programs
Many public health departments follow a particular module and training program for contact tracing agents. These guidelines are supposed to be followed by contact tracers or external agencies to which they have outsourced the services. So, it is better to check the official websites for training modules like CDC in the US.
Online training
For providing training to this extended workforce, many institutions over the world are offering public healthcare accredited online courses for interested contact tracers. Every contact counts and every contact tracer will be a value addition to the process because it needs a huge workforce considering the spread of COVID-19. Online contact tracing training is also feasible for those agencies that have hired remote contact tracing agents working in rural or underdeveloped places.
