Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's (MSKCC) Research
Animal Resource Center has strict policies controlling the handling of research
animals. Legal and ethical
requirements guide the treatment and handling of all research animals. The training department at the Research
Animal Resource Center implements a training program that provides opportunity
for both physical skill development and increased cognitive understanding of
the necessary care and treatment of the animals worked with. To facilitate this training, the department
employs various types of technology.
Trainers at the Animal Research Center employ various
technologies like Lectora, Camtasia, or Snag-It applications to accomplish organizational training
goals. Specifically, they are tasked
with ensuring all animal handlers are trained in the legal and ethical application
of departmental procedures governing the humane care and treatment of research
animals. Training modules or classes are
developed to deliver instruction on several key points including: proper handling of animals, procedures for
limiting animal discomfort, and methods of euthanasia. Training is provided through electronic learning
modules (elearning modules) or in face-to-face training sessions. While most training components can be
considered highly successful, there is room for growth and development.
Increased use of knowledge
based elearning modules would greatly benefit the
organization by providing additional learning on topics not currently addressed
by the training department due to time and human resource constraints. Increasing the number and variety of
elearning modules will increase training productivity and worker efficiency by
freeing trainers to engage in more face-to-face training activities. Examples of additional elearning modules might
include expanded coverage of important topics such as animal
behavior, protocol writing, and drug selection.
The training department currently employs the use of the
company intranet to disseminate information on
current and upcoming training classes.
Links to training documents could be imbedded to provide learners with
additional work aides like “How-To” work sheets
providing important information on the steps or procedures necessary to
complete departmental paperwork correctly.
For example, students could download information on organizational
standards for writing protocol.
Due to time constraints, training classes are not able to
address all aspects or components of any given subject. Student questions go unasked and
unaddressed. This often results in
frustration out of the training room in real life application. The creation of a training blog
would effectively address this matter by providing the training department a
platform through which commonly asked questions can be addressed in Q&A postings or a section on Tips &
Techniques for research animal handling. Employing Web 2.0 technologies in this way
provides asynchronous 2-way communications that can be answered by the trainer,
departmental leadership, or another student.
Such a tool would provide enormous benefit to both the student and the
department as necessary training information could be disseminated outside the
training room.
Finally, the training department at MSKCC Research Animal Resource Center
would greatly benefit from the addition of a Learning Management System.
Currently, the training department tracks training completion on Excel spreadsheets and
requires the manual submission of paperwork or files to document accordingly. This process is antiquated, and insufficiently
allows the training department to track learning success in elearning modules
based on time, accuracy, and content understanding. Departmental adoption of a learning
management system would allow the organization to electronically track and
monitor online training courses, videos, course assessments, and learner
surveys enabling continuous improvement within the training department,
increased learning for the student, and best possible handling for research
animals.
