Establishment and Evaluation of a Large Contact-Tracing and Case Investigation Virtual Training Academy

Olivia Golston; Michael Prelip; Debbie Bain Brickley; Anne Cass; Lisa Chen; Alina Dorian; Alice Gandelman; Chris Keh; Andrew Maher; Roger Myrick; Michael J A Reid; Karen White; Rachel Willard-Grace; Shira Shafir

doi:10.2105/AJPH.2021.306468

Establishment and Evaluation of a Large Contact-Tracing and Case Investigation Virtual Training Academy

Am J Public Health. 2021 Nov;111(11):1934-1938. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306468. Epub 2021 Oct 28.

Affiliation

¹ Olivia Golston is with the Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles. Michael Prelip, Alina Dorian, and Shira Shafir are with the Department of Community Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health. Debbie Bain Brickley, Andrew Maher, Michael J. A. Reid, and Karen White are with the UCSF Pandemic Initiative for Equity and Action, University of California, San Francisco. Anne Cass is with the Center for Infectious Diseases, California Department of Public Health, San Diego. Lisa Chen is with the Curry International Tuberculosis Center, University of California, San Francisco. Alice Gandelman is with the California Prevention Training Center, University of California, San Francisco. Chris Keh is with the Center for Infectious Diseases, California Department of Public Health, Richmond. Roger Myrick is with the Institute of Global Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco. Rachel Willard-Grace is with the Center for Excellence in Primary Care, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Virtual Training Academy (VTA) was established to rapidly develop a contact-tracing workforce for California. Through June 2021, more than 10 000 trainees enrolled in a contact-tracing or case investigation course at the VTA. To evaluate program effectiveness, we analyzed trainee pre- and postassessment results using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. There was a statistically significant (P < .001) improvement in knowledge and self-perceived skills after course completion, indicating success in training a competent contact-tracing workforce. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(11):1934-1938. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306468).

Publication types

Evaluation Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
California
Contact Tracing*
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Program Evaluation / statistics & numerical data*
Public Health
Teaching* / education
Teaching* / statistics & numerical data
Workforce*