The NCI's Cancer Information Service Staff Training Program: a foundation for excellence.

The philosophy of the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Cancer Information Service (CIS) staff training program is based on the premise that a solid relationship exists between staff performance and training. As a leading edge organization and the premiere cancer information service in the world, the CIS provides more training to its staff than many organizations. This factor is in part responsible for the program's success over the past 30 years, during which time the staff training program was revised to reflect a more comprehensive, performance-based approach. This paper describes the development of the curricula and the standards that are the foundation of the CIS program.