More than 1 lakh nurses trained across India to fight against COVID-19

New Delhi: To strengthen its fight against COVID-19, over 1 lakh nurses from various hospitals in the country, have undergone skill development training. Initiated by Generation India, youth employment not for profit organization, along with its coalition partners, this 4-hour, free online course offers practical, demonstration-based, and immediately applicable support in the areas of infection prevention and control in the COVID-19 crisis, use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the role of nurses in handling COVID-19 patients and self-care.

“As a skills initiative generation wanted to contribute to mitigating the on-going Covid-19 crisis. In doing so we created a high-quality immersive online Nurse Upskilling module (with certification) for nurses to become Covid-19 ready. Launched on May 26th, already over 100,000 nurses have taken the course with excellent feedback. We feel immensely satisfied that we can be of some help to the COVID warriors and hope thousands more undertake the course” says Arunesh Singh, CEO, Generation India.

With the help of prominent partnerships, this free online course has been disseminated across 18 states and over One lakh Nurses have already registered for this course.

The coalition included like-minded partners like Columbia Asia Hospital, who offered the medical content; ABP News as the media partner; Learnet Skills Ltd. and UNESCO, who supported the launch and rolled out the course. Hosmac India Pvt Ltd —as the industry partner, Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI) which is the certification partner for the same and IKEA Foundation and MetLife Foundation as Funding Partners. Healthcare bodies National Health Authority (NHA) and Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations (CAHO) have also partnered with Generation India Foundation, for this course as Strategic Partner (Public Health). Other organizations such as Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Orion Edutech, DNC (Delhi Nursing Council), IPNA (Indian Professional Nurses Association) have also significantly contributed towards the dissemination of this course.

“To make the program available to as many nurses as possible,” Arunesh adds, “we worked with the trained nurses’ association of India to get it accredited and publish the program on their website.” It is offered at no charge, and grants continuing education credits to qualified participants.

Several participants remarked on how helpful it is to have demonstration videos, which are not usually a component of nurses’ training. In particular, the content on Roles and responsibility of a nurse in handling COVID 19 and stress management has been especially well-received; one nurse commented that “she is very happy she took up the course and would recommend all others to take this up” while another noted: “The course really helped us understand and fight against COVID 19”

The course can be accessed here. To make it accessible to more nurses, Generation is sharing it with multiple sources – nursing council and associations, healthcare industry association, individual hospitals/clinics, and state-run public healthcare facilities.