Worker Training Program

1. In the FOA, it states "provide training to impacted populations in "the eight target states"... What are the eight targeted states?
   This reference to "8 states" is from an earlier draft of our FOA, before CDC had designated the 55 Ebola treatment hospitals. We'd like to have activities centered around existing designated treatment facilities and the surrounding communities. The list of Ebola treatment centers was referenced in the FOA. Also, you may target training outside of these centers as long as you fully justify the need for the training and have access to the target population as described in the FOA.
2. In the recent Ebola supplemental grant announcement, it said that the earliest start date for funding to begin is May 2015 and the end date is the end of the current parent grant (July 31). Are you therefore requesting a 3 month budget and budget justification? If you are requesting a 3 month budget, if we request a staff person to be at the 1 calendar month level, will this be interpreted as 1/12 of a yearly salary or 1/3 of the budget period?
   Yes, a three month budget from May to July 31 is requested. Given that the supplement request will be for 3 months, in this example a staff request for 1 calendar month effort will be interpreted as 1/3 of the budget period.
3. Target Audience. As Doug and Kirk mentioned to you in Portland, we want to do a Train-the-Trainer for community college nursing program faculty. We have spoken with the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing (a Council of the American Association of Community Colleges) and they feel this is a critical and currently unmet need for their faculty. We will not be training local healthcare emergency response teams directly as suggested in the FOA, although our nursing instructors will no doubt be represented on those teams. Is our target audience ok?
   Specifically for this admin supplement we are looking at your target populations and how you would be providing Ebola biosafety infectious disease training. We will be creating a bigger national initiative with the next FOA that will be coming out in the next few months. The use of the other federal agencies resources such as CDC (infection control), NIOSH and OSHA (occupational exposure) should be fine for this supplement.
4. Curriculum Review and Approvals. Do we need to adjust the timeline to get approvals from the mentioned federal agencies (CDC, OSHA, NIOSH, ASPR) before we begin TTT?
   No. You should make every effort to use the existing resources and guidance material to develop/adapt your curriculum and also use our existing operations and awareness training resources to the fullness extent so not to duplicate efforts.
5. Is there a suggested length for TTT? The FOA states that a 4-8 hour awareness course and a 32-hour operations course need to be developed but there is no guidance given regarding the length of the TTT.
   The TTT length is up to the awardee to develop. You should put your suggested topics, length and any additional information regarding the curriculum in your application.
6. What workers can be trained? So - is it only those job categories in healthcare facilities OR is it broader? Can we train state police who might have exposure to persons with Ebola at airports? Can we train local health officers?
   In general, the training is broad and as we stated it can be healthcare workers including health officers, ancillary workers such janitors or environmental services that cleanup hospitals and also groups such as airline crew members, waste haulers, emergency responders which of course includes state police. Note, you have to have access to these workers and not rely on open enrollment to get them to attend, so relationships are key. PPE matrix provides a good road map to target populations which can be found referenced in the FOA and also on this OSHA Factsheet.
7. Do you think there is any elasticity in the funding to allow for Infection Control Risk Assessment Best Practices in Healthcare (ICRA) training that is not necessarily specific to Ebola?
   The funding from Congress via CDC states, "support worker-based training to prevent and reduce exposure of hospital employees, emergency first responders, and other workers who are at risk of exposure to Ebola through their work duties". That being said, in order to prevent and reduce exposure to Ebola a good infection control program and training needs to be in place which would apply to other biological exposures to infectious diseases as well (as you can tell by the title of the supplement). Somewhere in the training Ebola needs to be addressed specifically.
8. Is it a permissible expense to provide release time for TTT, or awareness?
   No, we do not cover release time but it is reasonable to provide incentives to support the training; however, it must be fully justified in your budget.
9. We have community health centers interested in 2 hour lunch and learns. Is that permitted?
   This may be okay if they've already had infectious disease control and this is enhancing their base training. You should provide a strong rationale in your application as to how effective this 2 hour lunch and learn would be beneficial and appropriate and who you are targeting.
10. Will a short informational session/30-minute briefing with video put out as broadly as possible to entice people into taking the 4-hour course?
    We strongly prefer hands on training and the use of existing training resources and material and it is not the best use of our funds to develop training videos.
11. Can we use the funding to translate awareness and operations courses into Spanish?
    CDC website has Ebola materials in Spanish and those materials and other already developed should be utilized as much as possible. It would be appropriate to coordinate activities with other grantees who want Spanish language materials.
12. Is there a ballpark figure for an individual grant?
    We are providing funding for $650,000 to award 4-6 awards so it depends on if you are applying individually or partnering with others how much you should request. Please ensure you don't ask for more than you can realistically accomplish in 3 months.
13. Regarding the research summary piece of the application, what should we list as an abstract?
    Use same summary on form page 2 abstract from original grant. But bolster it with any existing Ebola activities you've been doing.
14. Where can we find more information about Ebola Training resources?
    The NIEHS National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training just posted an Ebola Webpage that includes the awareness level training tool we developed. The operations level tool will be posted shortly.