This essay will contain a critical discussion of ‘vulnerability’, and whether it can ever be ethical to conduct research with vulnerable groups. This essay will look into anonymity, confidentiality and informed consent and why it is important to use these when conducting research. It will also discuss safety and risk for researchers and the participants to ensure the research is carried out without harm. This assignment will concentrate widely on ethics and vulnerability in relation to children.
A vulnerable person can be somebody in need of special care, support, or protection because of age, disability, or risk of neglect. It can be difficult to define a ‘vulnerable’ group, as there is no specific criteria. Oxford University Press. (2015) states that a person who is vulnerable is exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, physically or emotionally. According to Council, S. (2015) children with low confidence and low self-esteem are at risk of being vulnerable. A vulnerable person is described an individual who may be in need of care services for mental or other ill health and age, or unable to safeguard him or herself against major harm or mistreatment.
Research is searching for, and gathering information, usually to find the answer to a problem. Research requires planning and time to evaluate what questions need to be answered and the information that needs to be gathered. Research doesn’t always give the ‘right answer’. When researching, it is important to carry out ethics to protect the research participants from harm. Ethics are principles of right and wrong conduct, its modern usage is more explicit tied to questions of value, and judgements about which habits and customs are good and bad. Kay, E. Tisdall, ...
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...ilities, such situations would need to be discussed and determined whether it would be ethical for an adult or caregiver to consent when the child cannot
Anonymity is the principle of individual participants should not be identifiable; this is usually achieved by the researcher altering the participants name and removing any information that may identify the individual.
Confidentiality in research is paramount, research data should not be passed on or shared with other people without the participants consent to do so, this is usually achieved by restricted access to data, for example researchers may store data in a password protected place. Confidentiality can be problematic where sensitive topics are addressed, for example child protection where an abuse case is disclosed, a breach of confidentiality is an ethical necessity to prevent further harm to the child.
Prior to viewing each film, each participant must have a parent or guardian’s permission to see the film being shown due to the series’ PG and PG-13 ratings. In addition, the parent or guardian must provide further permission to allow the researcher or themselves to interview the child participant. Each guardian and child will be informed of the nature of the research and will be able to look over each of the questions before they are asked of the child. Furthermore, they are allowed to pull out at any time they wish. The researcher is also required to obtain a working with children certificate and will show it to the guardian prior to the commencement of the
During the process of research, professionals collect data or identifiable private information through intervention or interaction. While this is a vital part of the scientific and medical fields, every precaution must be taken by researchers to protect the participants' rights. Ethics, outlined by the Belmont report; requirements, described by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); and regulations, laid out by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are verified by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). This procedure assures that all human rights are safeguarded during the entire research process.
Researchers who conduct interventional clinical research have put into question the Privacy Rule and how it will affect their research activities. The Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration and Protection of Human Subjects Regulations are advised to take measures to protect the
This essay will first address the statute used and interpretation of the threshold test by the courts, and then focus on cases involving vulnerable children to assess whether the statute in The Children Act 1989 is sufficient in protecting these children from harm. I will look at the argument in favour of the current approach taken by the courts, and the counter-argument in favour of changing the current approach. The arguments are delicately balanced and the law is always developing, so it will be interesting to see how the Supreme Court resolves this issue in future.
The Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, better known as the Privacy Rule, that took effect in April 2003 for large entities and a year later for small ones, was established as the first set of national standards for the protection of health information. This rule was issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to meet the requirement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The Privacy Rule was born out of a need for health information to be appropriately protected yet still allowing the health information to be shared to ensure quality health care and to protect the public’s health and well being. It allows for the protection of the privacy of the patient and yet it also permits vital uses of information.
This relates to ethical issues as it is difficult to decide when confidential information should be shared, as described in my ethical dilemma above.
It is a multidimensional human condition and constant human experience with the reduced ability to protect oneself (Cousley, Martin, & Hoy, 2014). Bailey (2010) describes vulnerability as an internal conflict which brings feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and lack of control. Vulnerability as defined by Scanlon & Lee (2006) can be broken into three dimensions, physical, social, and psychological aspects. Physical vulnerability can be identified by the potential risk of harm in the environment. Social vulnerability include age, sex, and ethnicity. Psychological vulnerability refers to the feelings associated with the loss of control and can be manifested by stress and anxiety. Vulnerability can be measured by the potential harm and the capacity to overcome it, as stated by Spiers (2000). Only the person experiencing vulnerability can truly understand its implications as it is a unique and individualized experience. (Thorup, Rundqvist, Roberts & Delmar, 2012). Vulnerability can be better understood by examining the external and internal risk factors that increase an individual’s
...esearch is not always an easy choice. There is often a fine balance between respecting the information gained from a child which has been freely given on a confidential basis and ensuring adequate protection for the child. Similarly ensuring that informed consent is given may result in some children not taking part in the research, but it also protects children from covert research which may not show them in a true light. As we have seen ethical issues are not always easy to resolve, but it is important to identify potential ethical problems so that ways of addressing them can be determined. Whether or not a piece of research is required to be approved by an ethics committee or not, by raising ethical questions during the planning stage it helps to ensure protection for both children and researchers and ultimately leads to better, well thought out research.
Research is viewed as a scientific human endeavour that is organised according to a range of protocols, methods, guidelines and legislation (Gerrish & Lacey, 2010). Research ethics is that domain of enquiry that identifies ethical challenges with a view to developing guidelines that safeguard against any harm and protects the rights of human subjects in research (Rogers, 2008).
The concept of privacy is often used interchangeably when discussing confidentiality. Privacy is a right to not be bothered. The difference between the two is that privacy is being respectful of an individual and confidentiality is being respectful of that individual’s personal information. There are times when there
A vulnerable population is made up of more than just a set group of people from a list. They are people with interrelations and interactions among several determinants of health that when put together places them as risk for being vulnerable (Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries, 2016). Even the word vulnerable is too vague. One could name a list of what these people are vulnerable to, such as abuse, homelessness, or drug addiction.
Vulnerable patients are those who cannot act on their own to protect themselves from threats to their health and dignity. A vulnerable patient encompasses a wide range of individuals and includes both adults and children. An adult is a person who is over 18 years of age and is described as a vulnerable patient if they are suffering from learning, physical and sensory disability. This includes disorders such as autism, cystic fibrosis and blindness and also includes sufferers of dementia. A child is a person aged less than 18 years and is described as vulnerable regardless if they have a disability. Irrespective of whether a child is living independently or in further education they are still entitled to services or protection under the Children Act (1989). A child is deemed as vulnerable as they are unable to protect themselves and this vulnerability is judged on varying factors such as, physical and emotional development, ability to communicate needs, mobility, size and dependence.
Within the field of psychology and mental health privacy, confidentiality and privilege plays a vital role in improving human health and lively-hood. Within the text is explain, “confidentiality in mental health practice stands in the background as an everyday issue” that has caused conflicts or stability when it comes to handling certain ethical issues.
The participants were notified beforehand that the process of anonymity will be kept by providing each participant a random three-digit number that represents their personal data. This coincides with the laws of ethical consideration, as the participants’ personal data were kept anonymous. However, during the process giving the teacher the results of each individual, the participants had to read their results out loud. This was done while the other participants were present in the room as well, hence there is a high possibility that their results were heard by the others. This contradicts the process of ethical consideration of keeping the information anonymous, taken before the investigation, as it jeopardises the participant’s anonymity. The other participants may hear their scores of what they received from the questionnaire, which may lead to the participant to being judged for receiving such a score. For example, a participant may have resulted with a smaller score for assertiveness than the rest, hearing the results may lead to some participants to take advantage of the participant and possibly tease them for the score they
Research philosophy, refers to the development of knowledge adopted by the researchers in their research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). In other words, it is the theory that used to direct the researcher for conducting the procedure of research design, research strategy, questionnaire design and sampling (Malhotra, 2009). It is very important to have a clear understanding of the research philosophy so that we could examine the assumptions about the way we view the world, which are contained in the research philosophy we choose, knowing that whether they are appropriate or not (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009), three major ways of thinking about research philosophy are examined: ontology, epistemology and axiology. Each of them carries significant differences which will have an impact on the way we consider the research procedures. Ontology, “is concerned with nature of reality”, while epistemology “concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study and axiology “studies judgements about value” (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009, p110, p112, p116). This study is intent on creating some “facts” from objective evaluations which are made by the subjects. Therefore, epistemology will be chosen for this study as the way of thinking about the research philosophy.