Dte. General Health Services, Nursing Division, MOHFW organized a Nationwide Virtual training program for Capacity building of Nurses On ‘Comprehensive management of VOC(Omicron), Revised treatment Protocols and Post-COVID-19 Sequalae’ in collaboration with Manipal College of Nursing (MCON), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal and Leelabai Thackersey College of Nursing, S.N.D.T. Women’s University, Mumbai on 28 March 2022 from 12.30 pm to 4.30 pm.

Dr Mamatha S Pai, the organizing secretary from MCON, and mentor for the Covid training for the Karnataka state welcomed the guests and the participants. Dr Rathi Balachandran, ADG (Nursing Division) Dte. GHS, MoHFW Govt. of India explained the need for the training for the nurses. Dr Sandhya Gupta, Chairperson, training oriented the participants about the training and stressed the importance of knowledge updates for the participants to care for the patients. Dr Suba Sooria, Head, nursing services, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal and the facilitator of this training in her message urged the participants to participate actively and use their knowledge in the day to day patient care. Dr Judith A Noronha, Professor and Dean, MCON, the guest of honour thanked the organizers for giving an opportunity to host this training and r explained the importance of preparing the covid warriors towards the effective management of Covid and Omicron as a priority. The chief guest of the inaugural program Prof Ruby Ojha, Pro VC, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai highlighted the importance of such training in the preparedness for Covid-19 sequelae and Omicron and urged the participants to make use of the training sessions. The Inaugural program was concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr Nancy Fernandes, Principal, LT CON, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai and the advisor of this program.

The training sessions included the sessions on the variant of concern- Covid 19 OMICRON; priority actions to be taken for the variant of concern; revised protocols for the management of COVID-19 (post second wave); infection prevention and control in health care facilities; management of post- COVID Sequelae and psychological aspects of care in post-SARS- Cov-2 Infection. A total of 478 participants from different states of India attended this training. The resources persons for the training were: Dr Jyoti Kathwal, Principal, CON, GMCH, Chandigarh; Dr Sukhpal Kaur, Academic HOD, NINE, PGIMER, Chandigarh; Dr Sumity Arora, CON, DDU, New Delhi; Dr Smriti Arora, Professor, CON, AIIMS, Rishikesh and Dr Sreeja Indira, CON, Ananthpuri hospitals and Research Institute, Trivandrum.

This training was carried out based on the resources prepared by the Nursing division of the Government of India under the leadership of Dr Rathi Balachandran, Assistant Director General (ADG) – Nursing Division, Government of India and Dr Sandhya Gupta, chairperson- training. Dr L Swasthicharan, Addl. DDG, Director (EMR), MoHFW congratulated the participants and explained the need for training in nursing.

The training was concluded with a post-test and feedback from the participants. Dr Mamatha S Pai, Aakanksha Waghe, Asst. Professor, L.T. College of Nursing, S.N.D.T. Women’s University, Mumbai were the organising secretaries and this training and Dr Suba Sooria and Mrs Sheetal Kothare, Asst. Professor, L.T. College of Nursing, S.N.D.T. Women’s University were the facilitators of this training.