Training in contact tracing available online

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LIMA — Rhodes State College’s Workforce Development & Innovation division has collaborated with Clark State Workforce & Business Solutions to offer a Contract Tracing training in response to the demand of local businesses, who want to return to work with modified operations. The training will be take place in six-parts, be self-paced, online and aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) protocols.

“Contact tracing is a tool to help keep the COVID-19 virus at bay as reopening occurs,” said Tammy Eilerman, Director of Advanced Manufacturing Initiatives and Advanced Technology at Rhodes State. “This online training helps individuals gain the knowledge and confidence needed to become contact tracers.”

According to Lesli Beavers, Director of Workforce and Business Solutions at Clark State, the partnership will create a space where “individuals will learn motivational interview techniques, risk communication, cultural and diversity sensitivity, understanding health privacy and confidentiality, terminology and continuous improvement.”

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office has begun to assemble a force of 1,750 contact tracers to add to the current volunteers who track possible COVID-19 infections. Participant in the program would be able to fill this need. Additionally, Beavers hopes “this program will be valuable to our business and industry partners, providing a cost efficient training for an employee to have the internal knowledge to create protocol and handle internal tracing if and when an employee tests positive for COVID-19.”

Contact tracing is a decades-old strategy for controlling disease at the local and state levels of the health department. According to the CDC website, communities are encouraged to scale up and train a large contact tracing workforce and work collaboratively across public and private agencies to stop the transmission of COVID-19. The CDC also states that to be done effectively, contact tracing requires people with the training, supervision and access to social and medical support for patients and contacts.

Those who participate in the training will learn the background of COVID-19, the basics of epidemiology, signs and symptoms of COVID-19, updated information about emergency response, ways to prevent the spread of the virus and specific precautions for those potentially exposed or symptomatic of COVID-19.

Cost for virtual contact tracing training is $50. For registration information, contact Tammy Eilerman at [email protected] or call (419) 995-8351.

Staff report

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