Quality Improvement Initiative Ethical Principles Discussion
Quality Improvement Initiative Ethical Principles Discussion
Write a 6-8 page double-spaced paper with an additional template in which you analyze potential ethical considerations that may arise from your doctoral project. Determine strategies to address these ethical considerations.
INTRODUCTION
Ethical researchers act in honest ways. Ethics are conduct norms or standards that distinguish between right and wrong and acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Ethical considerations matter because they guard against the fabrication or falsification of data. They promote the pursuit of knowledge and truth, research’s primary goal. Ethical behavior is also crucial for collaborative work because it encourages an environment of trust, accountability, and mutual respect among team members. Likewise, researchers must adhere to ethical standards for the public to support and believe in the research. Although most quality improvement and evidence based practice projects pose minimal risk to human subjects, an IRB screening process for your capstone project is required to ensure the project is meeting the appropriate ethical standards.
The Nuremberg Code (1947) protects human rights and is the leading code for conducting ethical research. It focuses on:
- Voluntary informed consent.
- Freedom to withdraw from research.
- Protection from physical and mental harm.
- Protection from suffering and death.
It also emphasizes the risk-benefit balance of conducting research. The Declaration of Helsinki (1964) underscored the importance of protecting subjects in research and strongly proclaimed that individuals’ well-being takes precedence over scientific and social interests.
Good research is well planned, appropriately designed, and ethically approved. Developing and following a research protocol helps to ensure this. Research needs to seek to answer specific questions rather than just collect data. Researchers must obtain approval from the Institutional Review Board or Ethics Committee. Researchers also need to pay special attention to vulnerable subjects to avoid breech of ethical codes. Although most quality improvement and evidence based practice projects pose minimal risk to human subjects, an IRB screening process for your capstone project is required to ensure the project is meeting the appropriate ethical standards.
The major ethical issues in conducting research usually involve:
- Informed consent.
- Beneficence—do no harm.
- Respect for anonymity and confidentiality.
- Respect for privacy.
You are responsible to ensure your project is conducted ethically and responsibly from planning to publication. Be familiar with ethical principles and follow them strictly. Discuss openly with the project team any potential ethical issues. If in doubt, consult the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for expert opinion and direction.
In this assessment, you will apply what you have learned from the CITI training and from your independent research on ethics to your doctoral project. In a 6- to 8-page paper plus a template, you will identify ethical considerations that may arise as part of your doctoral project. You will also identify strategies to address these ethical considerations.
Reference
World Medical Association General Assembly (2004). World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. International Journal of Bioethics, 15(1), 124–9.
DEMONSTRATION OF PROFICIENCY
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
- Competency 2: Apply strategies to maintain a climate of mutual respect and shared values.
- Apply historical ethical principles to analyze potential ethical concerns related to your doctoral project.
- Determine vulnerability or possible concerns for identified project participants.
- Create strategies to address potential ethical risks related to the doctoral project.
- Describe the IRB processes to be completed prior to starting the data collection process.
- Describe possible future changes to your doctoral project that would require IRB approval and the process to follow to obtain this approval.
- Competency 4: Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.
- Create a clear, well-organized, succinct, professional ethics analysis paper that uses appropriate tone and is generally free from errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
- Integrate relevant sources to support arguments, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.
PREPARATION
To successfully prepare for this assessment, you will need to conduct independent research on ethics related to research studies. You will be asked to supply a minimum of five references in your ethics analysis paper over and above those provided under suggested resources. Quality Improvement Initiative Ethical Principles Discussion
- Rather than researching the importance of ethical practice (which of course is very important), focus your research efforts on other research studies that have been conducted that are similar to your proposed research. For example:
- Can you locate other studies that took place in a setting similar to yours?
- What other studies exist that used participants similar to yours?
- What studies can you find that address a problem similar to yours?
- Do other studies exist that used research tools similar to yours, such as surveys, questionnaires, health behavior models, performance improvement plans, et cetera?
- Examine current resources available through peer-reviewed articles and professional and government websites. These guides can help you identify scholarly and authoritative sources:
- For program specific guidance refer to:
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