Staff Training

The education and training of personnel working with animals in the laboratory animal science (LAS) field is an important and evolving body of knowledge. This is evident by the recent updates and changes within the 2010 version of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide).

The 2010 version of the Guide includes significant edits and additions addressing training and education. The new Guide outlines training levels and requirements by personnel groups, such as veterinary, animal care, research staff and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) members. These changes convey the importance and emphasis placed on personnel training and development in the new Guide. Also, the new version addresses the subject of Occupational Health and Safety with a renewed emphasis on training. It provides more specific detail regarding program requirements and also more clearly defines its role in a laboratory animal program. One example of an addition to the Guide is the statement, “Training should be tailored to the particular needs of research groups; however, all research groups should receive training in animal care and use legislation, IACUC function, ethics of animal use and the concepts of the Three R’s, methods for reporting concerns about animal use, occupational health and safety issues pertaining to animal use, animal handling, aseptic surgical technique, anesthesia and analgesia, euthanasia, and other subjects, as required by statute.”¹

The Wording
The above statement, like many others within the Guide, uses the term “should” regarding training and educational content to be provided to personnel. There are a total of 15 “shoulds” in the updated version of the Guide in the approximately two-page Training and Education section alone. Particularly noteworthy changes in the updated version include instances whereby the word “should” has been replaced by the word “must.” One such example is demonstrated in the following sentence: “All personnel involved with the care and use of animals must be adequately educated, trained and/or qualified in basic principles of laboratory animal science.” ¹ On the surface these changes might seem small but they will have a significant impact on the scientific community. The United State’s Public Health Service requires institutions for which they provide funding to abide by the Guide. Additionally, the new changes will have an international impact since institutions accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC) will be required to abide by the 2010 Guide by the fall of this year (2011).

These new edits are already prompting institutions to re-evaluate their training programs. Additionally, changing the language from “should” to “must” gives institutions leverage in implementing and requiring training. One of the challenges that institutions face is that they now know what they “must” or “should” do but they are not provided with guidance on how to effectively implement the practices or procedures. To complicate matters, terms such as “adequately” or “qualified” have not been defined and can be interpreted in many different ways.Many institutions are addressing this challenge by not only developing and implementing additional training, but also by implementing objective competency assessments into their training curriculums. AAALAC will assist institutions with interpretation of the new Guide by publishing a document later this year. This document will outline how AAALAC expects institutions to implement the new Guide in order to maintain institutional accreditation.

The Challenges
These new training regulations present several additional challenges. One, the development, implementation, and maintenance of entire training protocols are time consuming. Second, the extensive training programs require knowledgeable personnel and financial support.

Institutions depending on staff availability and funding have taken different approaches to address these issues. In the following case study, the approach taken by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Research Animal Resources Center (RARC) will be examined. RARC employs four full time personnel dedicated to training; they have a specifically allocated space for training equipped for procedures ranging from basic methodologies to surgical techniques. The University of Wisconsin-Madison provides their trainers with financial resources, as well as institutional support of the program. The trainers are afforded the opportunity to attend conferences such as Laboratory Animal Welfare Training Exchange (LAWTE), where they have an opportunity to learn effective training techniques, develop training materials, and share their experiences in an interactive forum. This is important because while the majority of people within the LAS field are very strong in the sciences, they benefit from continued learning of educational techniques. The University of Wisconsin-Madison trainers have been developing and improving their program for several years. The trainers have developed a productive and supportive relationship with investigators, research staff, and students who come to them for assistance and are more open to implementation of new ideas or refinements introduced by the training group. Additionally, the trainers have incorporated some of their training resources to publish the Laboratory Rat and Laboratory Mouse Procedural Techniques Manuals, which are available through CRC Press.

The publication of effective training methods is extremely important because many institutions are allocating scarce resources to developing their own programs and the potential for duplicative efforts is high. In 2008, the North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium was formed. This consortium brought together the broadest spectrum of stakeholders of veterinary medical education. One of the three main goals was to “identify what changes in veterinary medical education would be needed in the near to long-term future…”² One course of action that was identified to meet this goal was that the “Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) creates and maintains an inventory of shareable courses from all North American accredited schools.”² One potential solution would be to take and apply this same strategy to the laboratory animal sciences field, whereby a consortium would help the LAS community address unique educational challenges. The potential exists for sharing existing educational materials developed by subject matter experts and identifying areas of education where materials are lacking/needed. This should help in balancing the cost of developing educational materials by individual institutions, while trying to meet the requirements of the Guide. This is beginning to happen on a smaller scale, where global organizations are reviewing and analyzing their training capabilities and assessing the possibility of developing a centralized office for training.

There is little doubt that new guidelines requiring training for individuals involved with the care and use of laboratory animals will create a huge demand for training material and services. Without a well developed plan, institutions could expect significant financial investment and a drain of resources.

References

1. Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. 8th ed. 2010, Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
2. Roadmap for Veterinary Medical Education in the 21st Century: Responsive, Collaborative, Flexible. 2010, North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium.

Szczepan Baran, VMD, MS is the President for the Veterinary Bioscience Institute. Veterinary Bioscience Institute, 292 Main Street, #300, Harleysville, PA 19438; 877-VET-BIOS; szczepanb@vetbiotech.com; www.vetbiotech.com.

Elizabeth Johnson, VMD is the Manager of Product Development and Veterinary Services for Putney, Inc. Putney, Inc, 400 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101.

Jessica Kurz, MPA is the Business Operations Manager of the Laboratory Animal Resources Center at The University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX; 78249; 210-458-6692

Luis Zorrilla, BS, LATG is the Assistant Director of the Laboratory Animal Resources Center at The University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX; 78249; 210-458-6692

Marcel Perret-Gentil, DVM, MS is the University Veterinarian and Director of the Laboratory Animal Resources Center at The University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX; 78249; 210-458-6692, marcel.perret@utsa.edu; vpr.utsa.edu/larc/index.php.