Owing to the decision of the Interagency Coordinating Council headed by the Prime Minister, to effectively manage the COVID-19 situation in the country, the process of retraining senior medical students has commenced.

The rapid training course in hybrid form (both online and offline) specially developed by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia has been going on for several days now.

Representatives of the National Family Medicine Training Center of the Ministry of Health and the Georgian Red Cross, as well as trainers of the Public Safety Management Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 112 are also actively involved in the process.

The one-week training course is fully tailored to the needs and challenges of student volunteer support staff in the pandemic management process. The program includes various areas and thematic lectures on coronavirus management, including personal safety of nursing staff, case management of Covid-19, effective communication under pandemic conditions, psycho-social assistance for infected people, and many more.

Videos of the rapid training course are available here.

The student training program will continue systematically. In this regard, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia has developed a framework program for universities - "Principles of Management of Covid-19", within which higher education institutions themselves provide mandatory in-university training for medical students. Given this contingent, universities compile lists of students who wish to be included in the medical staff reserve base.

The main goal of the training program is to create a solid base of medical staff. Trained students will be available to assist with COVID-19 management process as needed.