This online course discusses ethics and personal integrity and illustrates how these traits apply to technical staff in a public health or other laboratory. Examples of general workplace ethics are provided. Many of the ways that data integrity can be affected by technical staff are explained, from recognizing when sample integrity has been compromised to documenting errors, handling calibration and quality control issues, and changing or correcting results. Examples are given to show how improper practices and the failure to maintain data integrity can lead to fraud. One section of the course is dedicated to improper laboratory practices and how they can be avoided. Patient confidentiality, temperature records, altering SOPs, improper labeling, and failure to document are among the topics covered in this section. Another area focuses on issues of peak integration. The course ends with an in-depth look at chain-of-custody protocols as they apply to both clinical and environmental laboratories.. 

Intended Audience

This course is directed to technical staff at all levels in public health and other laboratories

Learning Objectives:

After completion of this course, the participant will be able to:

• Define the terms commonly associated with ethics, data integrity, fraud and Chain of Custody
• Recognize staff’s responsibility to conduct themselves ethically in the workplace
• Describe the role of technical staff in maintaining data integrity
• Describe and list examples of imposter practices
• Explain the relationship of improper practices to fraud
• Recognize the consequences of fraud
• State the responsibilities of management and staff in preventing fraud
• List actions that can affect sample integrity
• Describe the Chain of Custody process for laboratory samples

Pre-requisites/Learning Level

No pre-requisites

Competencies addressed

Leadership and Systems Thinking Skills, communication Skills

CEUs Offered

None

Cost

Free

Modality/format

Online Self-Pace

Length

1 hour

Presenter(s) and/or Content Experts

Marcia Valbracht BS, MHA

Technical requirements:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader 
• Speakers

Registration requirements

Register a free account

Creation and/or update

January 3, 2015