Exam 9: Ethics in Research

A nurse plans to interview prisoners as part of the nurse's master's thesis on treatment of health problems in correctional institutions. What special measures must the nurse take before studying these potential participants?

A breach in confidentiality occurs. Which of the following represent a breach in confidentiality?

Why are vulnerable populations considered vulnerable? To what are they vulnerable?

How would a professor who wants to have his students provide data for a research study go about doing that, without involving coercion?

A researcher working for Google collects data on fair treatment in the workplace. She attempts to attach one of the raw data forms to an e-mail message to herself, so that she can finish the data analysis at home that evening, but accidentally sends it to another employee who had provided data for the study. The two study participants, coincidentally, have an identical opinion about fair treatment in the workplace. This best describes an example of a violation of which human right?

Research articles may be considered fraudulent in which of the following instances?

A physician is conducting research on a new and promising chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer that improves survival and decreases adverse symptoms. Sixty participants will be recruited; of these, thirty will be assigned to the experimental group, receiving the new treatment, and thirty to the control group, receiving the usual chemotherapy. The physician's wife, newly diagnosed with breast cancer, is randomly assigned to the control group; he removes her from the control group and places her in the experimental group. What ethical violation has occurred?

A researcher obtains consent from a person with a recent traumatic brain injury (TBI) to observe the person and test her at intervals, using cognitive survey instruments. The person has not yet regained the ability to speak and can understand and obey only simple commands. She nods yes, and shakes her head for no. The participant's husband is consented for the study, and the patient is asked to assent. Does this fulfill the requirements for consenting someone with diminished capabilities? Why or why not?

To take positive action to prevent any harm to the research participants best defines which ethical principle?

Which one of the following are considered vulnerable populations, from an ethical point of view?

In the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital Study, 22 patients were injected-unknowingly-with a suspension containing live cancer cells that had been generated from human cancer tissue. What ethical principles apply here?

A graduate student receives a mailed survey packet asking the student to participate in research about unpleasant experiences in graduate school. The student is asked to return the survey, with the statement, "Return of this instrument implies consent." Why does this constitute consent?

Both the participant in the experimental group who receives an experimental treatment and the participant in the control group who receives the control treatment are considered to be participants in therapeutic research. Why is this?

In what way could the researchers in the Willowbrook study have designed their research on the hepatitis virus so that it was ethically acceptable?

A researcher conducts a mixed methods study on exercise as a modality of controlling hyperglycemia. The study has both quantitative results, describing the amount that glucose falls with various amounts of exercise, and qualitative results, describing participants' mood and sense of well-being with different kinds of exercise. The researcher decides to publish an article based on the quantitative findings immediately but wait to publish the qualitative results later. What are the reasons that this would not be an instance of researcher misconduct?

The right an individual has to be told that he is a potential participant in a research study and may decide not to be so best defines which human right?

A master's student knows next to nothing about Maslow's theory related to hierarchy of needs but, on an advisor's recommendation, decides to use it as a theoretical framework for the student's thesis. The student goes to the library and accesses an old master's thesis that also uses the theory and copies three pages, word for word. This student uses the other student's reference to Maslow's work. What word best describes this master's student's actions?

Which of these statements concerning guidelines for consenting children for research participation are true?

A researcher is applying for renewal of a large federal grant, without which his very promising research on panic disorder cannot continue. He is completing renewal forms, which include a synopsis of his results, to date. If he excludes two of the participants with very severe panic disorder and three with mental health disorders of another kind, the results are statistically significant. He writes the report and does not mention the five participants he excluded. What word best describes this researcher's actions?

A researcher is applying for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, and the form specifies that the researcher indicate the probable level of risk. The research creates situations in which the participants, registered nurses, are placed in unusual code-like situations in which they do not know what action to take, and actors play the parts of other healthcare providers. The participants are then asked to describe their feelings in the scenarios, and their levels of confidence as they go through 15 scenarios. What level of risk does this study pose?