The Principal Investigator (PI) of a large-scale project assigns one of the newly hired, but experienced project staff, as the Data Manager (DM) to handle various data management aspects of the project. The DM realizes that the project staff involved in data management activities have not been given any formal training to prepare them adequately for their responsibilities.
The DM discusses with the PI the need for formal and consistent training for all those involved in data-related activities, but the PI tells the DM that the project activities were approved by the IRB without any additional requirements for staff training. PI also points out the lack of time left in the project to bring all the project staff together for training and explains to the DM that the staff can learn on the job as project staff have done in other projects.
The PI also emphasizes that the project staff have not done anything wrong so far in their responsibilities, and so “if it ain’t broken, there is no need to fix it”, especially at that stage of the project when meeting the project deadline is more crucial. The DM understands that project staff have not committed any mistakes and is also not sure how the project staff would respond to a new hire telling them that they need training when they have been on the project much longer.
So, the DM wonders about the possible courses of actions and their consequences: |
