Capacity building and assessment of grass root workers regarding their role in prevention and management of the COVID-19 pandemic at a rural health care facility in Delhi

Abstract

Introduction: As various emerging and re-emerging diseases have occurred over time; this era is traversing through another pandemic of novel coronavirus. Management of COVID-19 focusses on spreading awareness to the community regarding methods of transmission and preventive strategies for COVID-19. Thus, capacity building of frontline workers plays a key role in the management of COVID-19. Methodology: A training evaluation study was carried out on ASHA and Anganwadi Workers at the Rural Health Training Center, Barwala for a duration of two months. Pretest and post test were conducted to assess the impact of the training sessions. Paired t test for difference between means for pre- and post-intervention sessions and Fisher’s Exact Test for proportion of subjects with and without correct knowledge were applied. Results: Comparison of Mean scores obtained by the group of participants in Pre-Test and Post-Test assessments came out to be statistically significant. An improvement of 15.5% was observed post training sessions, though the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The training sessions evaluated in this study were successful in raising awareness of the group of participants and helped to bridge the gap remaining after government endeavor.