With the belief that safe laboratories and zero laboratory-acquired infections can only be achieved through collaborations across different departments in the institution, The BioRisk Association of the Philippines, Inc. (BRAP) has designed a writeshop in developing what has been deemed as the “bible” of laboratories.

Last September 8, 2018, the laboratory biosafety manual writeshop, spearheaded by BRAP Founding President Dr. Miguel Martin N. Moreno II, was conducted at the Jecsons Medical Center in Tarlac City, Tarlac, under the auspices of the PAMET Tarlac Chapter, led by its president Ms. Narcisa Agustin, as part of their free CPD series.

This seminar–writeshop could not be any more than timely. As what Dr. Moreno would like to always emphasize and, maybe, what has been the mantra for this event, “it is better to have one ready, rather than need one and not have it at all.” More than 40 participants who are laboratory workers from local government and private institutions attended the writeshop.

The writeshop kicked off with a short yet informative lecture about plagiarism. Then a review of basic biosafety, biosecurity and biorisk management was delivered as these topics will be a pertinent part in their laboratory biosafety manual. Moving on to the gist of manual writing, the participants were taught on how to write policies, standards, guidelines and work instructions or the standard operating procedures (SOPs) using the CWA15793:2011 as the major reference. Later on, Dr. Moreno lectured about what should comprise the table of contents of the manual and about proper referencing using the APA manual. This topic would conclude the entire writeshop, with numerous fun activities in between to make the participants understand more and feel what it is like starting a laboratory manual.

During lunchtime, Dr. Moreno asked who the new officers were. Surprisingly, they did not hold their elections yet. This stimulated the PAMET Tarlac Chapter to conduct their election for its new set of officers. The election was initially supervised by Dr. Moreno as an outside electoral body and later on gave the floor to the re-elected president. The members unanimously re-elected Ms. Narcisa Agustin as their president.

BRAP would like to thank the PAMET Tarlac Chapter for the invitation to conduct the writeshop. We hope that this opportunity will gain more traction in the months to come.