Tutors 21 | - Freelance Writer
Jan 05, 2024 | #1
Question about a nursing research paper and privacy
I am a nurse, in graduate school, and trying to get everything ready to write my thesis. I need patient data, but my hospital's Ethics Committee has refused my application. They say my research would impinge on the privacy of their patients. I have already written over 40 pages of Literature Review, but my professor says I should not have even begun to write until I had their permission to conduct the study. What can I do?
Answer
There are a number of things you can do, in a situation like this. Time is valuable and I know you do not want to throw away over 40 pages of Literature Review. The easiest thing to do is tweak the manner in which you conduct your writing study and research. The Information Management Department of every hospital is going to be the best friend of any graduate student, whether he or she is in nursing, or in any of the Allied Health fields. Instead of collecting data from individual patients, have the Information Management collect your data for you. They can run a computer search for any parameters you need, and can get that information, sans names, for as many years as you need your study to cover.
They are an overlooked treasure that can even produce your graphs and, in some cases, your tables. Think about your study and see if there is any way you can change your research design to ex post facto. If not, and you need actual patients to interview, you may have to go to a large clinic, rather than a hospital, to find patients. As long as you fully document how you intend to protect human beings in research, the Ethics Committee of the hospital should accept it.
Once that is done, you will still have to get through the Ethics Committee of your graduate school, but they usually accept the decision of a hospital. The main thing here is to document document document, in your thesis, every step you have taken to protect your subjects.
Answers by Rose, graduateediting@gmail.com
I am a nurse, in graduate school, and trying to get everything ready to write my thesis. I need patient data, but my hospital's Ethics Committee has refused my application. They say my research would impinge on the privacy of their patients. I have already written over 40 pages of Literature Review, but my professor says I should not have even begun to write until I had their permission to conduct the study. What can I do?Answer
There are a number of things you can do, in a situation like this. Time is valuable and I know you do not want to throw away over 40 pages of Literature Review. The easiest thing to do is tweak the manner in which you conduct your writing study and research. The Information Management Department of every hospital is going to be the best friend of any graduate student, whether he or she is in nursing, or in any of the Allied Health fields. Instead of collecting data from individual patients, have the Information Management collect your data for you. They can run a computer search for any parameters you need, and can get that information, sans names, for as many years as you need your study to cover.
They are an overlooked treasure that can even produce your graphs and, in some cases, your tables. Think about your study and see if there is any way you can change your research design to ex post facto. If not, and you need actual patients to interview, you may have to go to a large clinic, rather than a hospital, to find patients. As long as you fully document how you intend to protect human beings in research, the Ethics Committee of the hospital should accept it.
Once that is done, you will still have to get through the Ethics Committee of your graduate school, but they usually accept the decision of a hospital. The main thing here is to document document document, in your thesis, every step you have taken to protect your subjects.
Answers by Rose, graduateediting@gmail.com