States are hiring thousands of coronavirus contact tracers — here's what to know about the job. (via CNBCMakeIt)
" course. After the course, candidates will have 72 hours to pass the course's assessment before they become eligible to be hired for the role. Gurley, who serves as a lead instructor for the online course given by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says that the hiring process for contact tracers varies by state and that interested individuals should contact their local health department to find out the application process as well as the amount of hours they will be required to work.
She makes it clear that in order to take her course, you do not need a background in infectious disease or public health, and she emphasizes that the course was designed so that anyone with at least a high school education will be able to follow it., is put together by Johns Hopkins in partnership with former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg's Bloomberg Philanthropies. Individuals who take the six-hour course, Gurley says, will gain the basic knowledge they need to know about contact tracing before applying to the role through their city or state government. The course, which launched on May 11, has already seen more than 150,000 learners sign up within the first week. Right now, New York is the only state using the course as a requirement for hiring, but Gurley says the curriculum is general enough for other states to use it as well. The course, she explains, is broken up into five sections. These sections include the basic information about Covid-19 and how it's transmitted; the fundamentals of contact tracing, including how to identify a potentially exposed person; the steps involved in investigating cases and tracing contacts; the ethics of contact tracing, including respecting an individual's privacy; and the skills needed to be an effective communicator during the tracing process. "Ultimately, contact tracing is people helping other people," says Gurley, while emphasizing that good communication skills are a key part of the job. "And so to be able to do that well you've got to be able to build a rapport, including knowing how to talk to people but also knowing how to actively listen." To help learners master this skill, Gurley says anyone who takes the course will hear examples of what a call should sound like in terms of the language and tone that should be used when talking with an infected patient as well as an exposed contact. Moving forward, Gurley says, she hopes that contact tracers will remain a key part of the workforce and that state and local governments will continue to prioritize training individuals in this field. "If we had a more robust public health system, including people who knew about contact tracing earlier, we could have ramped these folks in more quickly and we wouldn't be in the situation we're in now," she says, while adding that the transmission of many Covid-19 cases could have been controlled. "So my hope is that we take a lesson from this and realize that public health is important. I would be very disappointed if we go through all this to build up these public health workers and then just dismiss them later on."
Please follow us on Google to support us United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Coronavirus updates: All 50 US states have now eased coronavirus restrictionsCORONAVIRUS LATEST: — Global cases near 5 million. — All 50 US states have now eased coronavirus restrictions. — University of Cambridge to keep all lectures online until summer 2021
Read more »
All 50 US states are now partially reopened, despite warnings from health officialsThe global coronavirus pandemic has brought countries to a standstill. Here's the latest updates on worldwide Covid-19 cases, deaths, government responses, and more.
Read more »
Why states can't go bankruptSenator Mitch McConnell said in April he would be in favor of allowing states to declare bankruptcy, as the coronavirus pandemic drained tax revenues. States can't declare bankruptcy and credit agencies say they are are nowhere near it, but some lawyers have argued for it in the past.
Read more »
States struggle with contact tracing, Pence isn't taking hydroxychloroquineHere are the latest coronavirus updates from around the world.
Read more »