Training strategies for animal care technicians and veterinary technical staff.

An institutional training program for animal care and veterinary technicians should be planned and implemented to provide these individuals with knowledge and skills for performing their duties within a laboratory animal care and use program. The complexity in the regulatory and scientific features of the animal research environment necessitates a strong training program on diverse topics according to staff duties. Orientation training should include ethics and compliance with relevant laws, policies, and guidelines. Depending on specific staff responsibilities, training may be general or in depth on topics of species-specific biology and behavior, animal facility equipment and operations, animal health procedures, animal research policies, occupational health and safety equipment and practices, computer usage, training, and management. Staff training should be an ongoing mission for incorporating new equipment, practices, and procedures in the laboratory animal program; for providing periodic refresher training to maintain a high level of staff qualifications; and for retraining when skills or knowledge are found deficient. Large institutions often have a dedicated training staff to implement the institutional training program.

ResearchTraining.org and AALASLearningLibrary.org: online learning management systems for technicians, researchers, and IACUCs.

ResearchTraining.org and the AALASLearningLibrary.org are web-based learning management systems that utilise database architecture in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Internet browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Netscape Navigator 6.0 browsers). Both websites are constructed of active server pages coded with a combination of HTML and Visual Basic. Course content, self-assessment quizzes, and exams are displayed on web pages by accessing the system database. Both systems define three client levels: users who take courses and exams, content authors/editors who build and modify courses and exams, and institutional administrators who access training transcripts of staff (singly or in groups). Exams are generated out of pools of questions, from which questions are randomly selected, and the sequence of answer choices are randomised. Users may output their passing exam results to a certificate generator. Passing exam results are also stored in the database for access by users or authorised institutional administrators. These systems are customisable for addressing the training documentation requirements in animal research facilities.