Contact Tracer Training Program
Our goal is to recruit and prepare a corps of Oregon students to assist with COVID-19 contract tracing in the State of Oregon. Elements of the training approach described below were piloted in June 2020 with the University of Oregon students undergoing preparation for working as contact tracers for Lane County Public Health.
Students are recruited from various health sciences backgrounds (e.g., public health; global health; prevention science; biology) as well as students with relevant skill sets (e.g., cultural competence; customer service experience). Despite varied educational backgrounds, all of these students will, ideally, pass through a final, common training gate that ensures a shared degree of knowledge and preparation for contact tracing activities in various contexts (community or campus) or jurisdictions (Lane County or other cities/counties in Oregon).
The student contact tracing program described here will include:
- completing the following 15-hour training “course” in COVID-19 contact tracing,
- successfully completing the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) 5-hour online contact tracing program,
- and undergoing more specific training with their local public health authority, which will include technical and practical training in contract tracing protocols required by OHA and that are specific to the local jurisdiction.
Once students are trained and have completed employment or volunteer paperwork through their local public health authority, they will be able to work as contact tracers as members of their county’s contact tracing teams.
Overview of training approach for student contact tracers
(1.) A series of 10- to 15-minute asynchronous “Ask the Expert” videos: prerecorded Q&A exchanges with a topical expert. Questions will be selected in advance to ensure coverage of essential issues and retention of key take-aways by someone undergoing training to be a contact tracing.
Course outline, topics, and modules:
Introduction & Welcome to Oregon Student Corps to Combat Coronavirus
- Senior Oregon Health Authority official – welcome and call to action
Overview of Public Health Response to Infectious Diseases
- Pat Luedtke, MD – Local public health responses to infections disease outbreaks
- Angela Long, MPH – Public health infrastructure – Global to local
- Debra Beck, RN, MBA, University/campus responses to COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2 Disease Basics
- Robert Pelz, MD – Virology of SARS-CoV-2
- TBD – Epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2
- Richard Brunader, MD – Approaches control, mitigation, and treatment of COVID-19
- Janis Weeks, PhD – SARS-CoV-2 in context of historical infectious disease outbreaks
- Josh Snodgrass, PhD – Current testing approaches to COVID-19
- Mark Brauner, MD – COVID-19 symptom presentation; central CDC criteria for “caseness” and range of COVID-19 symptom presentations
Social Disparities and At-Risk, Vulnerable Communities During COVID-19
- TBD – Social disparities and social determinants of health
- TBD – COVID-19’s impact on communities made vulnerable by structural racism/inequities
- Sarah Canales (Lane County Public Health) – Oregon’s Latinx community disproportionally harmed by COVID-19
- TBD – Oregon’s Black community disproportionally harmed by COVID-19
- TBD – Oregon’s Native community disproportionally harmed by COVID-19
- TBD – Oregon’s Asian community disproportionally harmed by COVID-19
ABC’s of Case Investigations & Contact Tracing
- Heather Amrhein (Lane County Public Health – Investigating “cases” of COVID-19; basics of case investigation
- TBD – Establishing infectious timeline
- Lane County Public Health – Contact Tracer: Overview of roles and responsibilities
- Lane County Public Health – Day in the life of a local contact tracer
- TBD – Roadblocks and pitfalls in current contract tracing efforts: Lessons to learn
- Nick Allen, PhD – Principles of motivational interviewing
- TBD – Culturally competent, humble and appropriate communication
- Video of actual contact tracing call
- TBD – Anticipating concerns among respondents
- Heather Amrhein (Lane County Public Health – Localized roles and responsibilities of a contact tracer by county area
- TBD – Overview of OHA’s ARIAS data entry/monitoring system
Privacy, Confidentiality & Technology
- TBD – HIPAA/FERPA training
- TBD – Privacy and data security issues
- TBD – Building technology apps into successful contract tracing
The modules listed above are, by design, meant to be delivered by experts anywhere, and can be re-conceptualized or replaced when needed. The list is also meant to be expandable.
Each of the modules will be supported with associated readings, supplemental videos (where available), information and procedural guidelines, and “key points” handouts.
(2.) Each Q&A interview module will be followed by a series of 2-3 summary slides of the key points.
(3.) Select Q&A interview module will end with a brief online quiz (2-5 questions) to consolidate learning.
Overview of ASTHO online contact tracing certification
ASTHO has developed a brief (approximately 5 hours) COVID-19 contact tracing certification program. This introductory entry-level course has been developed for use by health agencies in the rapid training of new contact tracers. Given that the training is generic in nature (i.e., best contact tracing practices given current knowledge of COVID-19), the ASTHO course must be augmented by state/local specific training requirements to orient individuals to jurisdiction-specific protocols. The ASTHO training focuses on building knowledge for remote contact tracing and includes the following modules:
- Contact tracing pre-assessment
- Lesson 1: The Basics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (& brief assessment)
- Lesson 2: The Basics of Contact Tracing (& brief assessment)
- Lesson 3: Effective Communication and Interviews (& brief assessment)
Successful completion of these modules and assessments will provide learners with a certification of completion.
As suggested above, the training content has been designed to ensure that students have a wholistic understanding of the public health challenges of SARS-CoV-2 and approaches to mitigation that will be both important to completing the ASTHO course but also foundational to working as a contact tracer.
NOTE: there are a growing number of other online courses on contact tracing that also include certification options (e.g., Johns Hopkins University’s contact tracing course on Coursera). These can be used as a substitute for the ASTHO course/certification or as supplements.
Overview of on-the-job training students receive through local health authorities
The following describes the training to be received by the University of Oregon students working with Lane County Public Health.
As part of their contact tracing training at Lane County, students will be trained on Microsoft ARIAS software, and also receive practical training with Lane Country Public Health team leaders. The MS ARIAS training will show students how to document contact tracing, data quality, local workflows, and technical support. The practical training will occur before student contact tracers make calls independently, and students will complete the following steps: (1) Listen to at least one contact tracing call made by their team lead or a designated mentor; (2) Make at least one supervised call with their team lead or a designated mentor. (3) Discuss their progress and level of comfort making calls with their team lead, and receive approval from their team lead or a designated mentor that they are ready to make calls independently. If students require further coaching, any of these steps may be repeated.
Overview of ongoing, university-based supervision and support of student contact tracers
While students work with local health authorities as contact tracers, they will also receive ongoing supervision, mentorship, and support from faculty personnel at their home university or college, including health science faculty and campus healthcare providers. This support will take the form of regular (bi-weekly) case conferences and check-in sessions to address any issues that might arise for students working as contact tracers. Periodic one-on-one sessions with individual student contact racers will be implanted to ensure that their individual professional and education goals are being met.