Implementation of a Nationwide Knowledge-Based COVID-19 Contact Tracing Training Program, 2020.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Health Workforce Development

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid, unprecedented expansion of the contact tracing workforce in the United States.
• Prepandemic, the US had approximately 2,200 contact tracing personnel, which surged to over 100,000 during the pandemic.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and implementation of a free, nationwide online training course for COVID-19 contact tracers.
• To summarize participant characteristics and evaluation findings of the training course from April 2020 to December 2020.

Main Methods:

• Development and dissemination of a free, online, asynchronous training course for COVID-19 contact tracers.
• Analysis of registration data (n=90,643) and participant evaluation feedback (n=71,048) on course utility and knowledge gain.

Main Results:

• Over 90,000 individuals completed the training course within the first 8 months of its launch.
• A significant portion of participants (56.4%) had no prior public health experience, indicating the course reached new practitioners.
• High participant satisfaction was reported, with 94.8% finding the course useful and 93.0% reporting improved understanding of contact tracing.

Conclusions:

• The nationwide training course effectively reached and trained a large, diverse cohort of new public health practitioners for COVID-19 contact tracing.
• The course's success suggests that introductory, knowledge-based training can complement jurisdiction-specific training and serves as a feasible model for future public health workforce needs.
• Flexible implementation options are key to promoting course uptake among public health agency staff.