The purpose of this contract is to investigate why extramural staff take training, what kind of training they take, and whether staff who take training differ in systematic ways from those who do not take training. Part of the study shall be to investigate perceptions of training needs and perceived barriers to training among NIH extramural staff. The results of this study will be used for planning future training activities based on a knowledge of the needs of NIH extramural staff and on an understanding of the barriers to fulfilling these needs. The research shall be broad in scope and rigorously designed to allow reliable and valid generalizations to the NIH extramural community. The study shall survey two samples of NIH extramural staff. The larger sample will receive a short, mailed questionnaire with mail and phone followup. A smaller sample will receive a more intensive phone interview. In order to investigate barriers to training it is necessary to obtain responses from those extramural staff who normally do not participate in training activities. A special effort shall be directed to this group, including mail and phone follow-up, to maximize the overall response rate. This will help to insure that responders provide a representative sample of the NIH extramural staff. The objectives of the project will be to determine: 1) the attitudes of NIH extramural staff toward training, the NIH-TC, and STEP; 2) staff perceptions of their training needs: and 3) barriers, both real and perceived, which limit training activities among extramural staff.
