IACUC Announces Rodent Surgery Training Requirement for Newly Added Personnel
Ensuring that all personnel remain knowledgeable of important advancements in laboratory animal science is vital to safeguarding animal health and well-being throughout our daily research operations.
To that end, the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee (IACUC) has recently adopted an additional training requirement – ULAM-11751 Basic Rodent Surgery Workshop – for all new personnel listed as performing recovery surgery in rodents on an IACUC approved animal use protocol.
This requirement only applies to individuals who have been newly added to a protocol with these specific animal handling details on or after the date this requirement takes effect in January 2022.
Modifying Personnel Assignments
IACUC required training is based on an individual’s animal handling details as outlined by the Principal Investigator (PI) in an animal use protocol. If an individual will no longer be performing recovery surgery in rodents, we strongly advise that their responsibilities be updated as such in the protocol.
This quick review and modification of personnel assignments will:
- Eliminate the need for individuals who will not be performing recovery surgery to complete the four-hour ULAM-11751 Basic Rodent Surgery Workshop
- Prevent issues that may arise with personnel training noncompliance
- Minimize system-generated training notifications and emails
Read the PIs and Laboratory Contacts: Know What Training is Due for Your Protocol article for additional information and step-by-step instructions for running Protocol Training Reports in eRAM.
How to Enroll
To enroll in the workshop, you must first:
- Be listed on an approved animal use protocol as performing rodent recovery surgery
- Complete both of the following classes:
- ULAM-10120 Rodent Survival Surgery (online) and
- ULAM-10105 Laboratory Mouse Workshop or ULAM-10110 Laboratory Rat Workshop
- After the above classes have been completed, the basic rodent surgery workshop will be assigned to your MLearning Learning Plan
- Enroll in the basic rodent surgery workshop class via MLearning
Workshops must be completed within 60 days of assignment notification.
Workshop FAQs
Workshop topics include:
- Identification of the surgical room/area
- Basics of aseptic technique
- Preparing the animal and surgeon
- Basics of animal anesthesia and analgesia
- Appropriate instrument handling and surgical techniques
- Suture practice and wound closure methods
- Surgical recordkeeping and post-operative documentation
- Recovery care of the animal
No. Only those individuals newly added to a protocol on or after January 1, 2022, will be required to take this training.
Yes, provided you meet all of the enrollment requirements outlined above.
Please note that those individuals who are required to take this workshop (as determined by their assigned animal handling details) may be given priority enrollment.
If you haven’t registered for the class by the January 2022 implementation date, the workshop will automatically be added to your MLearning Learning Plan.
Workshops must be completed within 60 days of assignment notification.
If you need to reschedule, please contact the ULAM Training Core at ulam-trainingcore@umich.edu.
Questions?
Questions should be directed to the ULAM Training Core at ulam-trainingcore@umich.edu or (734) 763-8039.