Ethics in Nursing Research

Essay by longrnCollege, UndergraduateA+, May 2006

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Introduction

Nursing research is usually initiated from observations of individuals or groups that want to establish evidenced based practice standards. In the past there have been multiple media accounts of misconduct or unethical practices during data collection and analysis for research, leading to a significant distrust of the research process. In 2003 the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, was implemented to protect the privacy of personal health information and establish guidelines regarding ethical research practices.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast similar research articles: one quantitative and one qualitative article. These articles discuss the researchers' perspective on the efficacy of sedation for critically ill patients. A brief overview of each article will be discussed, but the primary focus will be the ethical conduct or misconduct of the research teams involved. This report will attempt to determine if ethical issues or concerns are evident in the information provided in each document.

Overview of Quantitative Article

The quantitative article, "Effect of a nursing-implemented sedation protocol on the duration of mechanical ventilation", is a study in which the practice of protocol-directed sedation during mechanical ventilation is compared to non-protocol-directed sedation. The study consisted of a randomized control clinical trial in an urban teaching hospital with a sample group of 321 patients.

The study design consisted of randomly assigned mechanically ventilated patients to the proposed sedation protocol or to the established non-protocol guidelines. The study concluded the use of protocol-directed sedation could reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation, time in the intensive care unit, hospital length of stay, and the need for a tracheostomy for the respiratory failure patient. (Brook, 1999)

Overview of Qualitative Article

The qualitative article, "Sedating critically ill patients: factors affecting nurses' delivery of sedative therapy," analyzed the impact nurses'...