On a war footing with Covid-19 healthcare program
NSDC has undertaken the implementation of ‘Customized Crash Course Programme for Covid-19 Frontline Workers in Healthcare’ and has so far enrolled nearly 1.24 lakh candidates under it. Spread across 425 districts of 33 states/ union territories, the trainings are designed to leverage the existing workforce in healthcare and make them ready for Covid-19 times. Nearly 1.14 lakh candidates have undergone upskilling for over a week and about 10,000 have gone through fresh skilling; and are currently undergoing three months’ on-the-job training at hospitals/ clinics.
The program was launched on June 18 by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi to skill, reskill and upskill one lakh healthcare workers across the country for improved and well-equipped response to Covid-19. The project has been initiated by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) to create a pool of trained Covid-19 frontline workers through a customised crash course program.
Under the program, candidates are being enrolled in six job roles. These are basic care support, advance care support, home care support, emergency care support, sample collection support, and medical equipment support.
At the launch, the prime minister said the program aims to train healthcare workers, skilling them to tackle the new and emerging variants of coronavirus in the future. As anticipated, the third wave of Covid-19 in India is inevitable, however, the Government’s mass vaccination drives are likely to reduce the severity of the infectious respiratory disease.
The crash course program includes a Short-term Training (STT) followed by an on-the-job training (OJT) for three months in healthcare facilities such as primary health centres, hospitals, diagnostic facilities, sample collection centres, among others.
The initiative will support states and district administrations to fight Covid-19 and will help in reducing the workload of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
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