Indraprastha University to start 2-week certificate course for health assistants from June 28

The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in Delhi on Saturday said it will start a two-week 'Certificate Course for Health Assistants' at nine medical colleges and hospitals in the city from June 28.

Earlier this month, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that his government would train 5,000 youths to assist doctors and nurses as part of its preparations for a possible third wave of COVID-19.

Health assistants or community nursing assistants will be imparted two weeks' basic training in nursing and life care. The training will start from June 28 in batches of 500 candidates, he had said.

Indraprastha University's two-week certificate course will be conducted in close coordination with the Delhi government, the institute said in a statement.

The nine city-based medical facilities where the course will be conducted are Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital and Medical College, ESI – PGIMSR, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, North DMC Medical College and Hindu Rao Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Hospital and Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, it said.

The certificate course has so far received an "amazing response" and a very large number of applications was received for only 5,000 seats within a week, the statement said.

A virtual meeting was convened on Saturday under the chairmanship of Vice Chancellor of the university professor Mahesh Verma to discuss the various steps to be taken for conducting the training programme for the course.

Dean of the University School of Medical and Para Medical Sciences Dr Yatish Aggarwal, registrar of the university Ravi Dadhich and heads of all the nine medical institutions participated in the meeting.

It was decided that a batch of 50 applicants will be trained at each institution. Only Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital will have two such batches.

From a pool of 5,000 applications that came in first, 500 applicants will be trained as part of the first batch and the remaining 4,500 in subsequent batches, the statement said.

They will be trained in basic nursing, paramedical, lifesaving, first-aid, home care, sample collection, oxygen concentrators, cylinder operations and other such tasks.

After successful completion of the training programme, they will be awarded a certificate and a medical kit comprising a BP measuring machine, a pulse oximeter, digital thermometer etc by the university.

“These trained youths will assist doctors and nurses as part of preparations for a possible third wave of COVID-19. These trained health assistants will be roped in whenever their services are required during any disaster or epidemic,” Verma said.