Over 50,000 nurses across India trained to deal with COVID 19 in less than two months
News Correspondent, abptakmaa, Kolkata, 28th July 2020 : Generation India, a youth employment not for profit organization along with its coalition partners organized an impressive online training programme for frontline healthcare professionals to care for COVID patients. Over 50,000 nurses from various hospitals across India have been trained on how to deal with COVID-19 related cases.
The four-hour online COVID training programme offers practical, demonstration-based, and immediately applicable training in the areas of infection prevention and control in COVID-19 hospitals. It covers the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as well as personal care for medical staff. First launched in Italy, the epicenter of Europe’s outbreak, the programme has trained over 50,000 nurses across India in less than two months.
Mr. Arunesh Singh, CEO of Generation India, points out that healthcare professionals who have been working in the industry for decades have not had any personal experience with a pandemic that they can draw on now. “We have experienced diseases like Swine Flu and Chikungunya, but they were not so contagious. While the healthcare worker is trained for PPE in their course, they have never used them in the workplaces. The nurses needed to be upskilled” he explains.
With each new disease comes a new battle plan and highly-trained nurses are key to winning the fight against COVID, and that’s the motivation behind Generation’s new upskilling programme.
Generation India organized a coalition with like-minded partners like Columbia Asia Hospital, who offered the medical content; ABP news’ crews; Learnet Skills Ltd. and UNESCO, who supported the launch and rolled out the course. Hosmac India Pvt Ltd —as the industry partner for the programme and Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI) which is the certification partner for the same. Other organizations such as Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) , Orion Edutech, DNC(Delhi Nursing Council), IPNA(Indian Professional Nurses association) have also significantly contributed towards the dissemination of this course and to ensure this can reach out to over a lakh nurses across India.
Most of the Nurses who have taken up the course have found it extremely relevant to their work. Sucharita Sharma, Assistant Nursing Director of Medica Hospital in Odisha, admits that it has been a steep learning curve. “COVID has led to the training of people from all backgrounds to offer enhanced care. As it was an online course, it also provided flexibility to learn at our convenience,” she adds.
To make it accessible to more nurses, Generation is sharing it with multiple sources – nursing associations, healthcare industry association, individual hospitals/clinics, and state-run public healthcare facilities. The course can be accessed on https://www.generation.org/india-covid-19 Publicity : Point One Communication.
