Research ethics involve guidelines on daily work, safeguarding the self-respect of subjects and the publication of research information. When nurses do take part in research, they have to deal with 3 value systems which include nursing, society and science (Fouka & Mantzorou, 2011). These value systems might conflict with the values of communities, societies and subjects, thus creating dilemmas and tensions in nursing. This paper examines a qualitative study and documents the ways in which the findings are useful in nursing practice. The paper also addresses the ethical considerations associated with the conduct of the study.
The research examined is one intended to explain the role of the clinical skills laboratory (CSL) in preparing nursing students for the real world of practice (Casey et al., 2010). This was a qualitative research that was conducted using qualitative research methods. The collection of data was done using semi-structured interviews with nursing students, educators and clinical staff in the CSL. Also, non-participant observations were conducted in affiliated hospitals so as to examine factors in the clinical setting that help or hinder students in practice. This research had some important findings that are useful in nursing practice. First, this study determined the benefits of CSL teaching. These include gaining confidence, motivation to learn, student satisfaction, safe environment for practicing skills, ensuring patient safety, communication skills, inter-professional learning and the improvement on traditional methods.
At the same time, CSL plays a huge role in imparting clinical skills, history taking and physical examination. Thus, the findings would greatly help in the integration of clinical teaching with basic sciences so as to improve the clinical experiences of students. According to Houghton & Casey (2012), these findings are important in preparing nursing students for real-life clinical environments. They demonstrate how a student is able adapt to the workplace, and this requires support, development of confidence and exposure to performing clinical skills. The study also recommends that staff working with nursing students in clinical practice should help in facilitating students’ learning and implementation of clinical skills by understanding how these students adapt and fit in to the real-life clinical environment.
The first ethical issue that arises in this research has to do with informed consent. When conducting qualitative research, concerns regarding the unsuitability of conventional one-off informed consent forms and deciding from whom to obtain consent when conducting observational data collection arise. According to Fouka & Mantzorou (2011), qualitative researchers are not able to guarantee the direction of methods of data collection such as observation and interviews. Another challenge is establishing from whom to request consent for performing observational data collection when it occurs in a clinical setting, and whether this consent should be verbal or written. For example, in this study, patients were primarily positive when it was initially decided that written informed consent was to be obtained from patients under the direct care of students under observation. However, when asked to sign the ICF, the patients sometimes became apprehensive.
Another ethical concern is the relationship between researcher and participant. This relationship can be potentially exploitative. The nature of data collection that involves interviews and observation methods means that this relationship raises significant ethical concerns such as the manner of formation and management of these relationships, nature of power balance and the psychological, emotional and personal effects of this relationship (Casey et al., 2010). At the same time, maintaining confidentiality in qualitative research is quite a challenge because of the detailed descriptions often applied to report and illustrate the findings. Finally, the dual role of the nurse researcher might pose ethical problems, especially when the researcher has a professional interest in the study topic.
References
Casey, D., Houghton, C., Murphy, K. & Shaw, D. () Ethical Challenges in Qualititative Research. Nurse Researcher, 2010; 18(1); 15-25.
Fouka, G. & Mantzorou, M. (2011) What are the Major Ethical Issues in Conducting Research? Health Science Journal, 2011; 5(1); 3-14.
Houghton, C. & Casey, D. (2012) Students’ Experiences of Implementing Clinical Skills in the Real-World of Practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2012; 21(2); 654-672.
