Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka.
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.
JBI Evid Implement. 2022 Sep 1;20(3):228-235. doi: 10.1097/XEB.0000000000000307.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses an ongoing risk to health workers globally. This is particularly true in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where resource constraints, ongoing waves of infection, and limited access to vaccines disproportionately burden health systems. Thus, infection prevention and control (IPC) training for COVID-19 remains an important tool to safeguard health workers. We report on the implementation of evidence-based and role-specific COVID-19 IPC training for health workers in a hospital and public health field setting in Sri Lanka.
We describe the development of training materials, which were contextualized to local needs and targeted to different staffing categories including support staff. We describe development of role- and context-specific IPC guidelines and accompanying training materials and videos during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We describe in-person training activities and an overview of session leadership and participation.
Key to program implementation was the role of champions in facilitating the training, as well as delivery of training sessions featuring multi-media videos and role play to enhance the training experience. A total of 296 health workers participated in the training program sessions. Of these, 198 were hospital staff and 98 were from the public health workforce. Of the 296 health workers who participated in a training session, 277 completed a pre-test questionnaire and 256 completed post-test questionnaires. A significant increase in knowledge score was observed among all categories of staff who participated in training;however, support staff had the lowest pre-test knowledge on IPC practices at 71%, which improved to only 77% after the formal class.
Implementing an IPC training program during a complex health emergency is a challenging, yet necessary task. Leveraging champions, offering training through multiple modalities including the use of videos and role play, as well as inclusion of all staff categories, is crucial to making training accessible.
新冠疫情大流行对全球卫生工作者的健康构成持续威胁。在资源有限、持续感染浪潮以及疫苗获取受限的中低收入国家（LMICs），这种情况尤其如此，这些因素不成比例地给卫生系统带来负担。因此，针对新冠的感染预防与控制（IPC）培训仍然是保护卫生工作者的重要工具。我们报告了在斯里兰卡的一家医院和公共卫生领域实施针对卫生工作者的循证和特定角色的新冠 IPC 培训的情况。
我们描述了培训材料的开发，这些材料针对当地需求进行了调整，并针对不同的人员类别，包括支持人员进行了调整。我们描述了在新冠疫情第一年期间，针对特定角色和背景的 IPC 指南以及配套培训材料和视频的开发。我们描述了面对面培训活动以及课程领导和参与的概述。
实施计划的关键是拥护者在促进培训方面的作用，以及提供多媒体视频和角色扮演等培训课程，以增强培训体验。共有 296 名卫生工作者参加了培训课程。其中，198 人来自医院工作人员，98 人来自公共卫生工作人员。在参加培训课程的 296 名卫生工作者中，277 人完成了预测试问卷，256 人完成了后测试问卷。所有参加培训的人员的知识得分都显著提高；然而，支持人员的 IPC 实践知识最低，仅为 71%，经过正式课程后仅提高到 77%。
在复杂的卫生紧急情况下实施 IPC 培训计划是一项具有挑战性但必要的任务。利用拥护者，通过多种方式提供培训，包括使用视频和角色扮演，以及纳入所有人员类别，对于使培训普及至关重要。
