Temperature mapping training: Who, what, and how?

Training everyone involved in the execution of your mapping studies is both required by standards and guidelines and helps ensure that your results can be trusted. Here is what you need to know.

Who needs training?

As a general rule, any personnel who will perform an action or document an aspect of the temperature mapping exercise that would later be relied on to conclude on the conformance of the facility or equipment should be trained and documentation of this kept.

In many cases actions that are part of the mapping exercise can be controlled and documented by members of the mapping team, thus eliminating the need to train a larger number of people.

Also read: 4 key players you should include in your temperature mapping study

What should the training include?

Training plans for temperature mappings should include:

• Purpose of the mapping exercise
• Testing plan (including timeline)
• Test plans and contents and purposes of each test
• Datalogger placement rationales and documentation requirements
• Good documentation practice (if applicable by that person)
• Contact information for the main responsible
• Safety instructions

Furthermore, make sure to include any topic-specific instructions that are necessary to perform specific studies in the training plan.

How should the training be conducted?

The training can be conducted in a variety of different ways, of which in-person training or reading of documents are the most common methods.

As should be noted in the protocol and subsequent test plans, training should be documented by name, signature, and date as a minimum.

Also read: 13 things to consider when selecting data loggers for temperature mappings