Background: Highly infectious but rare diseases require rapid dissemination of safety critical skills to health-care workers (HCWs). Simulation is an effective method of education; however, it requires competent instructors. We evaluated the efficacy of an internet-delivered train-the-trainer course to prepare HCWs to care for patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD).
Methods: Twenty-four individuals without prior EVD training were recruited and divided into two groups. Group A included nine trainees taught by three experienced trainers with previous EVD training. Group B included 15 trainees taught by five novice trainers without previous EVD training who completed the train-the-trainer course. We compared the efficacy of the train-the-trainer course by examining subject performance, measured by time to complete 13 tasks and the proportion of steps per task flagged for critical errors and risky and positive actions. Trainees' confidence in their ability to safely care for EVD patients was compared with a self-reported survey after training.
Results: Overall trainees' confidence in ability to safely care for EVD patients did not differ by group. Participants trained by the novice trainers were statistically significantly faster at waste bagging (P = 0.002), lab specimen bagging (P = 0.004), spill clean-up (P = 0.01), and the body bagging (P = 0.008) scenarios compared to those trained by experienced trainers. There were no significant differences in the completion time in the remaining nine training tasks. Participants trained by novice and experienced trainers did not differ significantly with regard to the proportion of steps in a task flagged for critical errors, risky actions, or positive actions with the exception of the task "Man Down in Gown" (12.5% of steps graded by experienced trainers compared to 0 graded by novice trainers, P = 0.007).
Discussion: The online train-the-trainer EVD course is effective at teaching novices to train HCWs in protective measures and can be accomplished swiftly.
Keywords: Ebola; Ebola simulation; Ebola virus; Ebola virus disease; hemorrhagic fever; teacher training; train-the-trainer.