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essay on nursing research ethics
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Ethics of Nursing Research
Conducting quality research requires the researcher to perform within both ethical and legal guidelines. “Ethics is the study of right and wrong” (Houser, J., 2012, pg.50). Ethics provide the avenue for decision making and are guided by the researcher’s integrity. Legal guidelines provide direction to the researcher by specifying what is required by law to conduct research. As a nurse researcher, it is an ethical duty to advocate for patients when incompetent, unethical or illegal practices are observed.
There are three basic principles to consider when evaluating the ethics of a study: 1) respect for persons, 2) beneficence, and 3) justice (Houser, J., 2012, pg. 54-56). To apply these principles in research is detrimental to the quality and validity of the study. Respect for person involves allowing the patient to make his/her own decisions. In order to accomplish this, the researcher must b e certain that the participant is capable of making a cognitive decision. Beneficence is accomplished through assurance that no harm will come to the participant for voluntary participation in the study. Beneficence is determined through assessment of the risks and benefits of the study design. Justice is accomplished when participant rights to fair treatment are honored. Justice includes subject selection. When the researcher has applied the basic principle of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice to determine if the study meets ethical criteria, the next step is to obtain informed consent.
Informed consent is “a process of information exchange in which participants are provided understandable information needed to make a participation decision, full disclosure of the risk and...
... middle of paper ...
...data collection, subject selection process and competency issues are resolved. I would report all concerns to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) to assure that the patients are protected and that breaches of ethical or legal nature are resolved. Any further research would be discontinued until all concerns are appropriately managed. Once concerns are resolved, research design would be modified, informed consents would be re-obtained and study would continue as planned.
Works Cited
Crawford, A. (2011, Nov. 10). Re: Research study regarding Mr. and Mrs. G. Retrieved
from https://kucampus.kaplan.edu/Seminar/OpenSeminar?chatID=1048267.
Houser, J. (2012). Ethical and Legal Considerations in Research. Nursing research:
reading, using, and creating evidence (2nd ed., pp. 49-77). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett
Learning.
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1. Capp, Marshall B. "Ethical and Legal Issues in Research Involving Human Subjects: Do You Want a Piece of Me? -- Kapp 59 (4): 335 -- Journal of Clinical Pathology." BMJ Journals. J Clin Pathol, 18 Jan. 2006. Web. 11 Feb. 2012.
The IRB is an administrative body which has been established to make sure research participants' rights are protected. IRBs review all aspects of the researchers' project: the study design, the recruitment process, the participant population, the informed consent document and process, the risk/benefit ratio, privacy and confidentiality, data storage and protection, and safeguards for vulnerable participants (University of St. Francis, n.d.). In this way, participants' rights are protected because the effort is made even before the research begins. The review process ensures that participants are chosen fairly and informed adequately and the information collected during research is safeguarded through collection, use, and storage. Research using human participants is such an important part of medicine that it is imperative it is performed in a way that its intrigue is not compromised.
In evaluating the ethical issues in the study using most of the components of the evaluation checklist in Houser (2015, p. 69), there were several observations. First of all, in this study, all of the women were provided oral and written information about the voluntary participation of the study. And being that all the women are identified originally as being above the age of 18, and are cognitively intact, there was no evidence that there were vulnerable populations involved. Since the study was based on interviews, there was no intent to harm. The information provided to the women included that all information was coded therefore confidentiality was intact and anonymity maintained. It was noted that all of the women gave oral and written consent on their behalf to participate. Approval was obtained by the Regional Ethical Review Board at the Facility of Health Sciences, University of Linkoping 2005. The study followed the guidelines and was performed in accordance with the Declaration on Helsinki which was written by the World Medical Association (WMA). “The WMA was created to ensure the independence of physicians, promoting the highest possible standards of medical ethics, the WMA provides ethical guidance to physicians through its Declarations, Resolutions and Statements.” (WMA, 2014). There was no notation or evidence that the participants had any underlying motivation to be coerced into the study, for instance, no monetary reimbursement or promise of medications trials.
In the United States, the basis for ethical protection for human research subjects in clinical research trials are outlined by the Belmont Report developed in the late 1970’s. This document, published by the Nation Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, highlights three important basic principles that are to be considered when any clinical trial will involve human research subjects. They are; respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. (Chadwick & Gunn, 2004)
Those who were affected by the testing in hospitals, prisons, and mental health institutions were the patients/inmates as well as their families, Henrietta Lacks, the doctors performing the research and procedures, the actual institutions in which research was being held, and the human/health sciences field as a whole. Many ethical principles can be applied to these dilemmas: Reliance on Scientific Knowledge (1.01), Boundaries of Competence (1.02), Integrity (1.04), Professional and Scientific Relationships (1.05), Exploitative Relationships (1.07, a), Responsibility (2.02), Rights and Prerogatives of Clients (2.05), Maintaining Confidentiality (2.06), Maintaining Records (2.07), Disclosures (2.08), Treatment/Intervention Efficacy (2.09), Involving Clients in Planning and Consent (4.02), Promoting an Ethical Culture (7.01), Ethical Violations by Others and Risk of Harm (7.02), Avoiding False or Deceptive Statements (8.01), Conforming with Laws and Regulations (9.01), Characteristics of Responsible Research (9.02), Informed Consent (9.03), and Using Confidential Information for Didactic or Instructive Purposes (9.04), and Debriefing (9.05). These particular dilemmas were not really handled until much later when laws were passed that regulated the way human subjects could be used for research. Patients
In qualitative studies, the researchers are unaware of the interview is likely to untwist. Therefore, informed consent is a must.
Dierckx De Casterle B., Izumi S., and Godfrey N. S. & Denhaerynck K. "Nurses' responses to ethical dilemmas in nursing practice: meta-analysis." Journal of Advanced Nursing (2008): 540-549.
In conclusion, patients with AD can participate in research provided that their decision- making ability is thoroughly examined. Otherwise, a proxy can decide because he usually acts in the best interest of the patient. To be considered ethical, the research project involving AD patients has to follow the guidelines of TCPS and be approved by a Research Ethics Board. In additon, autonomy, clinical equipoise and careful evaluation of benefits versus risks should be among the main ethical concerns of the study.
This paper will focus on two BNUR leaner outcomes (University of Calgary, 2013) relevant to my learned understanding of nurses as ethical decision makers. I will outline the ways that I have seen ethics used and not used in practice, what I learned about ethics and its use in my theory courses and throughout my practicums, and I will reflect on how this understanding will translate into my professional practice moving forward.
3). By receiving approval, it can be inferred that the study was ethically acceptable and the rights of the participants are protected (Houser, 2015, p. 61). To ensure human subjects are protected during research studies, researchers use three ethical principals: respect for persons, beneficence and justice (Houser, 2015, p. 52). Respect for persons protects the individuals right to make their own decisions, beneficience is do not harm, and justice provides the right for every individual who wants the opportunity to partipate in the study can (Houser, 2015, pp. 52-53). Respect for persons was protected by the researchers because they provided informed consent prior to data collection, data collection would remain confidential, and the participants can withdraw from the study at any time (Bjerknes & Bjork, 2012, p. 3). Beneficence was protected in this study because the researcher wasn’t an employee from the hospital; this allowed new nurses’ to share their perceptions freely, preventing any fear of retribution from being honest (Bjerknes & Bjork, 2012, p. 3). Justice was not clearly stated in this study because the researchers did not clearly state if the study was open to all new nurses on all the wards of the hospital (Bjerknes & Bjork, 2012, p.
Ethical dilemmas are the issues that nurses have to encounter everyday regardless of where their workplaces are. These problems significantly impact both health care providers and patients. Patient safety is the most priority in nursing and it can be jeopardized by a slight mistake. Medication errors and reporting medication errors have been major problems in health care. Errors with medications have been found to be the most common cause of adverse drug effects (Brady, Malone, Fleming, 2009). Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago conducted a research in 2012 that approximately forty percent of the hospitalized clients have encountered a medication error (Lahue et al., 2012). A nurse’s role is to identify and report these medication errors immediately in order to stop or minimize any possible harm to the patients. Ethical moral dilemmas arise when reporting the mistakes that have been made by one’s own colleagues, acquaintances, peers, or physicians.
Davis J. Anne Diane Marsha and Aroskar A. Mila (2010). Ethical Dilemmas and Nursing Practice. Pearson
Every day nurses face ethical dilemmas. Ethical dilemmas allow nurses to learn more about themselves and help shape their morals and values. The article “In the name of good intentions: nurses’ perspectives on caring for a pregnant patient in a persistent vegetative state” discusses a case from admission to discharge involving a twenty-two-year-old pregnant patient, Judy, with an anoxic brain injury due to a heroin overdose and the nurses’ accounts of how they felt during the client’s hospital stay.
Deontology is an ethical theory concerned with duties and rights. The founder of deontological ethics was a German philosopher named Immanuel Kant. Kant’s deontological perspective implies people are sensitive to moral duties that require or prohibit certain behaviors, irrespective of the consequences (Tanner, Medin, & Iliev, 2008). The main focus of deontology is duty: deontology is derived from the Greek word deon, meaning duty. A duty is morally mandated action, for instance, the duty never to lie and always to keep your word. Based on Kant, even when individuals do not want to act on duty they are ethically obligated to do so (Rich, 2008).
The article titled “Contemporary Ethical Analyses: A Shortfall in Scientific Knowledge” describes the ethics through the public’s eye. One of the major ethical issues brought up is informed consent.