Dear Health Education and Training Institute NSW (HETI),

My name is Mel. I have a few questions regarding the mandatory training modules that were made available to aviation staff as part of their induction to NSW health; primarily as contact tracers.

I would like to know the following:

• Were the training modules specifically related to contact tracing or were they
pertaining to the expectations and requirements of working for NSW Health.
• If the modules were specifically focused on the role of a contact tracer, can I
please know the details of the training material.
• Were professionals such as psychologists available to provide training on how to
handle distressing phone calls, distressing reading material, death notifications
etc, and were there any kind of debriefing sessions at the end of every shift.
• I would also like to know how broadly this cohort of staff were utilised in terms of
their tasks ie were they just completing case questionnaires or utilised more
broadly.

Thank you in advance for your assistance it is greatly appreciated.

Kindest regards,
Mel
(Melissa Griffiths)

Hi Ravi,

Thank you for your quick response I really appreciate it.

My first FOI request to the NSW Ministry of Health was to better understand how the aviation staff were initially deployed to NSW Health as Contact Tracers. That, I understand, was through a third-party recruitment agency called Randstad.

What I would like to know more about is their actual training, and, in what way and how broadly they were expected to be utilised.

In their response to my initial FOI request, the NSW Ministry of Health states:

"Contract tracers were provided with an induction to
NSW Health and were required to complete mandatory training modules
facilitated by the Health Education and Training Institute, as required
for all new starters."

Being the training facilitator I thought you would be able to clarify this for me.

Thank you for your time I really appreciate it.

Kind regards,

Melissa Griffiths