Authors: Grace Moore
Mentors: Aaron Olsen
Insitution: Utah State University
Abstract
Animal care technicians for research labs have many responsibilities in order to maintain the integrity of a research project. However, it is difficult to determine what tasks will require most of a technician’s time and effort. Thus, it is proposed that tracking what each individual does during a given shift can allow supervisors and technicians to create an efficient schedule of how they will work and provide a standard for individuals to meet every day. This project consists of tracking in detail what an animal care technician does in a given “shift”, including observation hours, handling and restraining, working in different biosafety levels, cleaning and prepping caging, and changing the caging. This data collection, over several months of work, finds relationships between tasks, the frequencies of being completed, and the time they take. The key tasks of an animal care technician are observing, providing nourishment, maintaining clean environments for both the researchers and the subjects, and maintaining supplies and accurate records. Additionally, many hours are dedicated solely to observing the animals to ensure their health and safety. Moreover, cleaning and prepping of caging or supplies are completed more than half of the time during a given shift. Finally, working with a given species may require more time to complete a task (such as cage changing or cage preparation) compared to another species despite the task being the same. If each technician were to track their tasks and create a profile of personal statistics, they would be able to easily determine how long a task should take. Moreover, a supervisor would be able to determine if a technician is working more efficiently or even falling behind during daily tasks. Overall, these findings could be used to incorporate better time management or planning for institutions to know what more time or resources may need to be devoted to in order to maintain a safe environment, provide exceptional care for the subjects, and follow every protocol.