Development of a Biosafety Training Program aligned with the Scientific Management Modernization Project of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute

Abstract

In the present paper we report a Biosafety Training Program (BTP) developed at Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC/Fiocruz) aligned with the Scientific Management Modernization Project of IOC. The program, including the "Biosafety Course in Biomedical Research Laboratory", was structured according to the planning-development-evaluation cycle. Initially, for the diagnosis cycle, the IOC laboratories representatives answered a questionnaire that showed that both professional categories (middle and higher levels) were interested in participating in BTP and mentioned, as preferential themes, biosafety and good laboratory practices. In the planning phase it was defined that BTP would be divided into two projects (Good Laboratory Practices in Public Health for middle level professionals and Biosafety Course in Biomedical Research Laboratories for higher level professionals). During the development phase of the Biosafety Course, the following modules were chosen: introduction, chemical, physical and biological risks, quality management and animal experimentation. Thus, in the period from 2006 to 2008, 315 professionals were trained and the respective evaluations were performed according to David Kirkpatrick's model. The first level of evaluation, called reaction, showed that 54.03% of the professionals said that the course was excellent, 39.59% classified the course as good and 6.38% as regular or did not express any opinion. For learning evaluation, pre and post-tests were carried out in each module. All the modules showed an increase in the grades of the post-test when compared to the pre-test. The results pointed to strategies that should be followed in order to improve this biosafety continuing education model.