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Proceedings of the 4th National Symposium on Biosafety

Safety Training and Education in Animal Research Richard Green, MSc Training Manager Office of Health and Safety Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1600 Clifton Road F05 Atlanta, GA 30333 404-639-2145

Breakout Session

In todays' veterinary environment, workers are exposed to a wide range of real and potential hazards. Walk into a typical work environment and you can easily spot a dozen different hazards - bloodborne pathogens, chemicals, electrical equipment, scapels, needles, bites, scratches, dusts, heavy objects, and repetitive motions to name just a few. With so many hazards and the ever-present watchfulness of regulating agencies, it is no wonder that many of us feel overwhelmed with the enormity of the task to keep employees trained and up-to-date on safe practices and procedures.

Many will say that they have a safety training program but are oft times simply "talking" a good game. They have the manuals, the videotapes, the slides, and the policies; yet, on closer inspection, little of the day-to-day activity which keeps people informed and aware. The general practice sems to be to train people once, shelve the manuals and videotapes, and expect workers to gather updating information via osmosis. What information is provided is soon forgotten or ignored for lack of regular reinforcement. If we do "retrain", we usually provide the same training, in the same time frame, and at our convenience with little regard for what the employee actually needs. Lost in this mix, of course, are new employees who we assume either already come with the necessary information or somehow pick it up.

Generally, there are two reasons why we fail to instill a proper regard for safe practice and procedure: lack of identified responsibility and lack of time. "It's the safety office's job," or "I can't have that many people off the job for that long," and, "It just isn't at the right time with the holiday coming up," are heard all too often. Using these excuses, we fall further into the Training Catch-22: "I'm too busy doing my job to become competent at doing my job." But, can we simply turn our backs on safety and walk away? No! It must become part of the very fabric of daily work activities.

Whose responsibility is it then and how do you make time to ensure that people are properly trained? Does the responsibility lie with employees, management, supervisors, or the Safety Office? In truth, all parties hold a part of the responsibility pie. Managements' responsibility is well defined under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) whose General Duty Clause states: "Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious harm to his employees." In other words, management must ensure that employees have a safe place in which to work with appropriate materials and training that allows them to work safely.

As an extension of management, the Safety Office has responsibility for ensuring that all employees are aware of regulatory safety issues and in fostering corporate awareness of the need for safe practices. Newsletters, E-mail, seminars, training classes, the Internet, pamphlets, and lending libraries are all useful in keeping the safety message in front of the workforce.

Supervisors, unlike management or the safety office, are on the front lines along with employees and have legal responsibility for activities within their work sites. They must constantly encourage safety awareness while accessing the need for training which they either provide themselves or seek help from an outside source.

Employees of course must incorporate the information being provided into their daily work habits and assure as stated under the OSH Act that they will follow the safety guidelines and practices as put forth by their employer. Thus a combination of encouragement and enforcement will result in a workforce with an air of shared responsibility and attention to safety.

On the other hand, time is often the ultimate factor in determining whether we train or not. No one ever seems to have enough time or sees the real need to spend so much time to learn, re-learn, or be reminded of something where they do not see specific application. Supervisors bear major responsibility to insure that their people are trained, but, constraints prevent many from embracing training with open arms. A recent article from Training magazine (November, 1995), "No Time To Train", by Chris Lee and Ron Zemke surveyed supervisors and sited as major time constraints - downsizing, money, more information to train, new regulations/mandates, increasing quality demands, and a "Do-It-Now" mentality.

With fewer people to do the work, it becomes harder and harder to allow employees time during normal work hours to attend training. Downsizing also brings a tightening of purse strings and an unwillingness to pay for training costs when the results are often not seen on accounting sheets. Crtainly the ever increasing numbers of regulations, detail of those regulations, and training based performance requirements of those regulations makes it difficult to keep up with them and provide quality training. All too often, we opt to provide "Do-It-Now" general overview training rather than planning ahead with an eye toward prevention and specificity.

The trends in training methodologies today are the straightforward and timely presentation of needed information. Disappearing are week-long courses, travel time, and superfluous information. Training today must be in real time, come in smaller chunks, and be provided wherever the employee is. Communication is the key. You must talk with people and assess their specific issues and training needs. Above all else, be flexible. What are the best times for the training to take place, and how many sessions will be needed?

Given these trends, training solutions are only limited by ones' own creativity. Personally, I try to keep my safety message in front of our employees on a regular basis by using E-mail, advertisements for seminars and brown-bag talks, newsletters, and safety alerts. The newsletter in particular does a great job of providing background information and informing employees, supervisors, and managers of the need for safety training as required under various regulations. E-mails on the other hand, come at least once a week announcing various classes and seminars sponsored by my office and are a constant reminder to employees to maintain their awareness. Many times, E-mail provides real-time opportunities to talk to employees about specific needs and follow-on issues.

Modular courses are an old solution to this new problem of time. Rather than give one large three-to- five day course twice a year, break it up into smaller two hour modules. Or, perhaps you could incorporate your larger training course in the form of a one hour seminar or brown-bag series. Experiment with time of day and frequency of the modules. Lunch sessions or before/after work sessions may also work well. Added incentive could be provided by offering time off at the end of the day for "extra" time spent training.

Assigning pre-class work is also useful in maximizing the time that employees are actually in class. Let them read background information or watch videos before they come to class. This way, you might even periodically require the employees to do the training while you add additional information for emphasis and clarification. I personally use a modification of this method when I teach bloodborne pathogens. The group is divided into smaller groups and assigned questions to answer about the standard. When we come back together as a group, my job is to fill in the gaps and clarify their answers for the whole group. Of course, the hidden lesson is that people hear other views on safety issues which may not be the ones they hold. It causes them to think about their actions and what they believe, and often results in heated discussion and behavior changes.

Interaction among employees, confirmatory statements, or testimonials are excellent for getting people involved and to possibly adopt a change in behavior. But nothing can beat training that is given on-site and "one-on-one." Going to where the employee is shows that you care about the employees welfare. You can be specific and focused on the training need, and generally spend less time training since you do not get bogged down in background information. Flexibility is again the key. If traditional classroom training works great! But, talk to your employees to determine their needs. Many times, I have discovered through one-on-one meeting that a simple "job aid" is all that is needed. Don't fall into the trap that says "All training is to take place in a classroom with an instructor for a certain amount of time."

Another training/time solution is todays' trend toward distance learning systems and computer based training (CBT). I don't believe there are many laboratories or veterinary areas at CDC that do not have a computer for people to use. CBT is slowly moving into the workplace to provide training directly at the employees desk. It's advantages are that nearly everyone has access to a computer which can provide access to training programs 24 hours a day. Plus, employees can go through the training at their own pace - advancing when they have completed material and reviewing material as needed before they go on to the next section. Overall, this on-demand, and in many cases modifiable, self-paced type of training leads to shorter instruction times, greater retention of the material, consistent quality of training, and of course, reduced travel expenses. However, CBT is not without its disadvantages. It can be expensive to develop, there are start-up hardware and software costs, you need in-house expertise to service the machines and materials, course specificity can be limited unless you develop it yourself, and, for older employees, the system may be technically challenging.

Distance learning systems address the need to train large numbers of people and still retain the interactivity of a one-on-one training session. You are connected by satellite to the trainer or trainers, and students at different locations may use a direct phone line to ask questions and get further clarifications. Advantages are that you can be flexible with scheduling, you don't need in-house expertise but draw upon experts from all over the country, travel time is reduced, and, you can train multiple audiences at many different locations at the same time. Disadvantages are mostly the availability and cost of the satellite down-link site and equipment to bring the program into your location. The National Laboratory Training Network, which is sponsored by CDC and offers training courses nationally via satellite downlink, trained over 10,000 laboratorians in 1994. With increasing numbers every year since then, it has become apparent that this training method is becoming widely used and is worth exploring.

The Internet is the newest and potentially most exciting method to train employees. It can serve as both CBT training center and distance based learning platform. Advantages are that it is interactive and self-paced, there is 24 hour access, employees have access at their desk top, office top, or at home, and training can be accessed from any computer with an Internet link. Disadvantages are similar to those for CBT. The high cost for hardware, software, and accessing the Internet, and the limited selection of courses. This in my view is the wave of the future as we are already seeing more courseware and easier access to the "Net" and training.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we have developed what we call "OhASIS" - a repository for all safety and health information needed by employees at CDC. It resides on the Internet and is accessed from the CDC Home page. Employees can request training, PPE, lab surveys, videotapes, manuals etc. and provide feedback about their needs to the Office of Health and Safety.

Finally, we hould not overlook training materials from outside sources. OSHA, NIH, the National Safety Council, and commercial safety video vendors all have materials and literature to help you. More and more of these materials are being offered in CBT formats and over the Internet. A major problem for purchasers, unfortunately, seems to be finding a product which is specific for their needs.

So, be creative! Look for ways to maintain an atmosphere of safety awareness, impart safety responsibility while meeting training needs, and, create a safe work environment for not only your employees but also your other charges, the animals.

Safety Training and Education in Animal Research Breakout Session
Rapporteur: Dr. Lynn Anderson Director Lab Animal Research Merck Research Labs PO Box 2000, R80M-160 Rahway, NJ 07065-0900 908-584-6179

Our very task oriented, interactive, competitive, and incentive-driven breakout team on training has put together a top ten list of training tips. I want to mention a few basic, common sense concepts. The first is that a training program needs to be well organized. Don't waste anybody's time. Make sure you give directions on how to get to your training facility or training center. Send reminders to attend the program. And as a trainer, it is important to be empathetic and develop a rapport with the people in your training group. It is also important to recognize that these are going to be adult learners who have different training needs than undergraduate or even graduate students. There is a section in the ILAR Manual on education and training programs for laboratory animal personnel that talks about adult education approaches. In some situations it is going to be important to document your training. That is a matter of fact.

The remaining 9 tips follow:

Tip number nine. In some situations you may want to consider giving a post test to demonstrate either an individual's knowledge or proficiency. We have heard this morning about the importance of follow up. Do not just train them and leave them, but follow up, monitor, and see how well applied your training is.

What that means is if you can offer some type of a short quiz or a test, maybe one that can be finished by e-mail, all the better. People really appreciate it if you can do that for them.

Tip number eight. Take the training to the employee. It may be possible to incorporate your training especially if it is a short segment) into a lab meeting, a departmental meeting, or a staff meeting, instead of making them come to you.

Tip number seven. Vary your approaches. Seminars are not always the answer. Think about interactive programs where you can use teams, perhaps in competition with one another, and recognize them with prizes. There are avariety of approaches and hands-on activities that you can do that will help reinforce the training.

Tip number six. Personalize the training. Wherever possible, use examples from your own laboratory of incidents or accidents that have happened or use videotapes or photographs of people in the laboratory that they can relate to. This makes the training more meaningful.

Tip number five. Make it timely. We should provide training early on when a new employee has just started their job or soon after an employee has taken on new responsibilities. It does not make any sense to give them training six months down the road, after they have already fumbled their way through those first six months trying to figure out how to do the job.

Tip number four. Share the training responsibilities. You may need to train those trainers. It takes the burden off of a single individual or a few individuals in your institution who are required to provide the training. In addition, it allows you to utilize expertise of various individuals in your institution. For example, if you have somebody that is very proficient in implanting jugular catheters in rats, then that person may be the best person to provide the training.

Tip number three. Use the pyramid approach to training. Give all your employees a certain amount of core training. Give it to them in a relatively short segment. Then train on a need-to-know basis. Break the training into modules. If people are never going to touch a rat, why are you going to teach them about rat restraints? If people are not going to do surgery, they do not need to take a surgery module. But if they are going to do surgery, they need to know about pain and distress. They need to know pre-operative care. They need to know about anesthetic techniques, and there are a series of modules that they would need to attend.

Tip number two. Incorporate humor. If you knew you were going to attend a seminar yesterday or listen to a lecture where some character got up and talked to you based on the definitions taken out of Webster's Dictionary, many of you would have found, suddenly, that you had an important phone call to make or that you needed to take a little longer break. For those of you who did not know what was coming, and you had the pleasure to listen to Dr. Bennett, give a very entertaining, humorous presentation, I would wager that may of you are going to remember that long past the end of this conference. So humor can be a very, valuable tool in making your point.

Tip number one. Offer incentives. There are a variety of things that you might want to consider. Food certainly is high on the list. One of the institutions mentioned that they actually give personal time off on a ratio of one for four hours of training, meaning you get an hour of personal time off. What can be better than free time? Recognition. There was some discussion about the importance and the value of giving certificates. Some people consider certificates to be important. They feel good about them. They put them up on their walls. Other people stick them in a drawer and forget about them. Training may beused to encourage people or to enhance performance ratings. It may also be used as an incentive for advancement, job opportunity, or simply for job security. In many cases, it is used as a key to access animal facilities.

The bonus is to make it relevant to the job assignment. I think all the working groups yesterday came up with this as the most important goal. The most important thing, then, is tell them what they need to know, then let 'em go.

Symposium Contents

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Office of Health and Safety, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road N.E., Mail Stop F05 Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA Last Modified: 1/2/97
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