Ethical Issues In Research

QUESTION

Ethical Issues In Research

There are many ethical challenges that have specific implications for nursing research. These arise primarily from the emergent and unpredictable nature of the research methods and the nature of the profession. Ethical challenges such as risk-benefit ratio which involves weighing both the benefits and the potential harm must be anticipated by the researcher before any contact with the potential subject.

Instructions

You are planning to conduct interviews about the experiences of women who were the victim of domestic violence. Complete the activities and answer the following questions:
List and discuss in details the ethical issues that are involved in the early stages of doing a research or evaluation study with these subjects or participants.
is informed consent necessary in this case? Why or why not?
What steps will you take to minimize the potential risks? What possible sources of physical and mental harm to the participants be minimized?
How would you protect this specific subject from harm?
What information will you provide to the participants to ensure informed and voluntary consent?
Do the benefits of the study outweigh the risks?

ANSWER

Ethical Issues in Research

It is important to consider the various ethical issues that are associated with conducting research on the sensitive topic of domestic violence prior to the research. Since the research will involve the interviewing of women who have undergone domestic violence, it is very important that the safety of the participants, as well as the other related issues, is taken into consideration to ensure research success. Some of these issues are discussed in this paper.

Protecting the Safety of the Participants

The first ethical issue to take into consideration is the safety of the women who are to be interviewed (Ellsberg & Heise, 2002). The risk of women having abusive husbands or partners being assaulted because of participating in the research has to be minimized as much as possible. To address this, issues such as how to contact the women about participating in the research; how to protect the safety of the women before, during, and after data collection; where and when data will be collected; and how to locate the women safety have to be considered. The participants have to be contacted without informing their abusers in order to protect them. Data also has to be collected in a way that the women will not be exposed to abuse after providing data.

Issues of Confidentiality

The second issue that needs to be addressed is the issue of confidentiality. As researchers, it is important to obtain permission from the relevant institutional review board and the authorities in the area of study (Ellsberg & Heise, 2002). The confidentiality of the participants of the research has to be guaranteed in order to protect them. Besides protecting the data collected in safe files and cabinets, issues such as notifying the participants of the possibility of not maintaining confidentiality and addressing how women will get to the venue where the research will be conducted should also be addressed.

Payment

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the payment of the women who participate in the research. Women should be fairly paid for agreeing to participate in the research (World Health Organization, 2001). The amount of payment has to be commensurate with the amount of time that they give to the research and the difficulties that they may go through. These women may be asked to provide personal and very intimate details about how they live and the experiences they have been through, including sexual abuse. For this reason, they should be compensated for their data and time.

Consent

As with any research involving the collection and use of personal data from participants, the acquisition of consent from the participants is of paramount importance (World Health Organization, 2001). Therefore, informed consent is important in this research since the participants have to be aware of the intended use of the information that they provide. Informed and voluntary consent has to be obtained from the participants before the beginning of the research or data collection. For this reason, the participants will be fully informed of the purpose of the research and how the data obtained will be used.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the various ethical issues surrounding the research have to be addressed. To minimize the risk to the participants, information on the research will be advertised and willing participants asked to call. The research will be conducted at a secure place and the women will be provided with free transport from and back to their homes. The women will be compensated fairly for the information that they provide. The information obtained from this research will be used in the study of domestic violence and in the acquisition of a clearer picture of the problem. The benefits of the research outweigh the risks as ways of better protecting women will be devised from the results of the research.

References

Ellsberg, M., & Heise, L. (2002). Bearing witness: ethics in domestic violence research. The Lancet, 359(9317), 1599-1604.

World Health Organization. (2001). Putting women first: Ethical and safety recommendations for research on domestic violence against women (No. WHO/FCH/GWH/01.1). Geneva: World Health Organization.