Doctoral Degrees (Office of the Dean: Health Sciences)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Office of the Dean: Health Sciences) by Author "Chikobvu, Perpetual"
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Item Open Access Towards the development of a capacity development framework for research ethics administrators: lessons from South Africa(University of the Free State, 2021) Mulondo, Mutshidzi Abigail; Tsoka-Gwegweni, Joyce; LenkaBula, Puleng; Chikobvu, Perpetual๐ฌ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป: Currently, research ethics capacity development is limited to research ethics committee (REC) members, and little research has been done on research ethics administrators, leading to lack of standardised requirements for this role, its responsibilities, and training requirements for fulfilling the supportive role for RECs. Although the role is administrative, research ethics administratorsโ duties exceed those of just simple administration, and include complex demands such as preparing for audits. This study proposed and validated a capacity development framework for research ethics administrators in South Africa. ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฑ๐: A scoping review was done to gain deeper insight into the history and current status of REC administration, with a specific focus on capacity development programs available for research ethics administrators. A questionnaire was then distributed to 36 research ethics administrators to determine the current responsibilities, training requirements and needs of the role, focusing on the local situation of REC capacity development. The first draft of the capacity development framework was developed through triangulating findings from the scoping review and questionnaire. A Delphi survey of the designed framework, completed by 13 experts from South Africa and abroad, was then conducted until consensus was reached. ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐๐น๐๐: From the 22 studies synthesised in the scoping review, two reported that there had been two capacity development efforts for administrators in Africa, namely the African Conference for Administrators of Research Ethics Committees, and the West African Bioethics Training Program. Thirty-six (36) administrators from National Health Research Ethics Council-registered ethics committees in South Africa participated in the online cross- sectional survey. Nearly 49% of the participants indicated that they had only received informal research-ethics-related training โ not targeted formal training. Of the 23 research ethics experts approached, 13 participated in the Delphi Survey, and results show that 67% of them confirmed that research ethics administrators require basic, entry-level training at the level of a Bachelorโs degree to be able to fulfil their duties. ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฐ๐น๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป: Research ethics administrators need to have a Bachelorโs degree and be capacitated in ways comparable to the training received by research ethics committee members. The world of research is evolving fast and requires every role player in the research ethics committee to be adequately capacitated. ___________________________________________________________________