Outcome of a research ethics training workshop among clinicians and scientists in a Nigerian university

Ademola J Ajuwon,Nancy Kass

doi:10.1186/1472-6939-9-1

Abstract

BackgroundIn Nigeria, as in other developing countries, access to training in research ethics is limited, due to weak social, economic, and health infrastructure. The project described in this article was designed to develop the capacity of academic staff of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria to conduct ethically acceptable research involving human participants.MethodsThree in-depth interviews and one focus group discussion were conducted to assess the training needs of participants. A research ethics training workshop was then conducted with College of Medicine faculty. A 23-item questionnaire that assessed knowledge of research ethics, application of principles of ethics, operations of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and ethics reasoning was developed to be a pre-post test evaluation of the training workshop. Ninety-seven workshop participants completed the questionnaire before and after the workshop; 59 of them completed a second post-test questionnaire one month after the workshop.ResultsThe trainees came from a multi-disciplinary background including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social science and laboratory science. The mean scores for knowledge of the principles of research ethics rose from 0.67 out of 3 points at pre-test to 2.25 at post-test (p < 0.05). Also, 42% correctly mentioned one international guideline or regulation at pretest, with most of those knowing of the Declaration of Helsinki. Trainees' knowledge of the operations of an IRB increased from 6.05 at pre-test to 6.29 at post test out of 7 points. Overall, participants retained much of the knowledge acquired from the workshop one month after its completion.ConclusionThe training improved participants' knowledge of principles of research ethics, international guidelines and regulations and operations of IRBs. It thus provided an opportunity for research ethics capacity development among academic staff in a developing country institution.

Highlights

In Nigeria, as in other developing countries, access to training in research ethics is limited, due to weak social, economic, and health infrastructure
This paper describes the processes and outcomes of a research ethics training workshop and evaluation conducted for academic staff of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Ten trainees (10.3%) were members of the local Institutional Review Board (IRB); 34% of all participants reported that they had had a previous training on research ethics, and 64% had none

Summary

Introduction

In Nigeria, as in other developing countries, access to training in research ethics is limited, due to weak social, economic, and health infrastructure. The primary role of ethics in health research is to protect the rights, integrity, and safety of research participants. Despite the availability of these guidelines and regulations, violations of the rights of research participants continue to occur in both higher and lower income countries [1,2,3,4,5]. It has been suggested that African study participants are more susceptible than their counterparts in developed countries to exploitation because of high levels of poverty, low literacy rates [6], severely limited access to basic health care [7], and inadequate local regulation of biomedical research [8]. Recent research ethics controversies in Africa include the Pfizer drug trials of Trovan in Nigeria and Tenofovir in Cameroon that have again highlighted the need for African professionals to have sophistication in research ethics in order to be able to participate in the debates locally [8]

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Discussion

Conclusion