Lessons Learned From Contact Tracing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Public Health Students' Experiences in the Field

This study employed a qualitative thematic approach to capture 11 graduate-level public health students' experiences, motivations, challenges, and recommendations on contact tracing procedures as DOH contract tracers. In-depth interview questions focused on students' interest in public health, experiences as a contact tracer, patient/case interactions, and personal outlook on the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic brought new experiences and challenges for public health students employed by local health departments as contact tracers. Three categories and subthemes emerged from interviews: (1) motivations to work as a contact tracer, (2) challenges faced throughout employment, and (3) overall assessment of the contact tracing process. Identifying and understanding the work of contact tracers from the system-level perspective is vital as they contribute to improving training and working relationships with management and ultimately extend to the community. Lessons learned during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic should help inform public health practice, especially when considering recruitment, curricula, training, and retention of the public health workforce in the face of current and emerging public health emergencies.PMID:37649406 | DOI:10.1177/21501319231196427
Source: Primary Care - Category: Primary Care Authors: Source Type: research