International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | July 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 7 Page 3305 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Rastogi A et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2021 Jul;8(7):3305-3315 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Enhancing the health coverage in India by empowering the corona warriors through educational intervention Aayushi Rastogi 1 , Sabin Syed 2 , Tarika Sharma 3 , Sarita Ahwal 3 , Karthik Ponnappan T. 4 , Arpit Kumar 2 , Vinay Kumar 5 , Akanksha Bansal 5 * INTRODUCTION Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an illness caused by a Novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has evolved as a pandemic across the globe in few months of its existence. COVID-19 disease is evolving at a rapid rate with 135 million cases and more than 3 million deaths reported worldwide as on 16 th April 2021. 1 With the rising number of cases, most of the world implemented stringent measures to curb the spread of the virus such as imposing lockdowns, shutting down of educational institutes, closure of malls, cinema halls, religious places, offices, airports, and railway stations and other necessary activities that require restriction of human movement. 2 The challenges posed by these restrictions has been overcome by moving towards digitalization. Knowledge seeking and sharing related to the virus are also being predominantly done through digital media. ABSTRACT Background: The aim of the study was to assess the effect of the training program on knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) related to prevention and management of COVID-19. Methods: A pre-post study was conducted among healthcare workers (HCWs) attending ten-days online training program from 29 April to 30 November, 2020. A 37-item questionnaire assessing knowledge (26-items), attitude (6- items) and practice (5-itmes) was administered to the participants before and after the training program. Total score of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) was 27, 12 and 20 respectively. Paired t test was used to assess the effect of training on KAP. Association of pre-training KAP with demographic variables was performed using SPSSv-22. Results: A total of 1428 HCWs were trained across 25 states through nine trainings; however, the data was analysed for only 1167 HCWs (response rate: 82%). Mean age of participants was 30.96±6.62 years and 77.29% were females. Mean KAP scores in pre-training were found to be 17.46±3.24 out of 27, 9.94±1.56 out of 12 and 19.01±1.76 out of 20 respectively which significantly increased to 21.28±3.65, 10.35±1.48 and 19.37±1.49 after attending training program. Pre-knowledge score was found to be associated with age, years of experience, geographical location, type of facility, presence of COVID-19 related facilities in the place of working. Conclusions: Comprehensively designed training program enhanced the knowledge about prevention and management of COVID-19 in HCWs and also motivated them to maintain an optimistic attitude and good practices while managing the patients. Keywords: COVID-19, Capacity building, Health personnel, Health education, Educational measurement 1 Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi, India 2 Project ECHO, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi, India 3 College of Nursing, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi, India 4 Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi, India 5 Project ECHO and PRAKASH, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi, India Received: 22 May 2021 Accepted: 07 June 2021 *Correspondence: Ms. Akanksha Bansal, E-mail: abansal1@ilbs.in Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20212325