ABSTRACT

Clinical trials are conducted to evaluate the efficacy, safety and side effects of new treatments/methods, vaccines, drugs and medical devices, as well as to examine and improve existing treatment methods. In order for a clinical trial to be conducted in an ethical and correct manner, the investigators and the study team conducting the clinical trial must undoubtedly have the relevant competence, training and experience to fulfil their duties related to the study in accordance with the rules of good clinical practice based on the Declaration of Helsinki. With the aim of training qualified research teams and improving the competencies of existing teams, three training programmes were organised in 2022 within the framework of the training programmes of the Turkish Vaccine Institute, one of which was online and two basic clinical research training programmes were physical/face-to-face. A “Basic Clinical Research Training Evaluation Questionnaire” was administered to the participants in order to improve the quality and methodologically evaluate the permanence of the training programmes. As a result of this study, it was observed that face-to-face training was more effective in terms of retention of learning. It was determined that it is important to differentiate the training programmes according to the level of knowledge and skills of the investigators and study teams and to develop continuing education programmes to keep the information about clinical research up to date. It is thought that the provision of training programmes in a standardised manner will contribute to the improvement of the quality of services and clinical research in the health sector.