You are asked to do a study on the effects of Music therapy (listen to CD for 30 minutes prior to
bedtime) on the sleeping behaviors of 2nd stage Alzheimer patients in a nursing home. What
ethical principles should be considered in planning and conducting the study? How will you
obtain informed consent?
Instructions:
This is a scholarly discussion and references must be used. The initial post must be between 400-
500 words.Use scholarly peer-
reviewed articles or textbooks for support. Do not use any .com references. No title page is
required. Develop your initial post to the proposed research study. Include your references at the
end.Be sure to include discussion of the three principles of ethical research (beneficence, justice, and
respect for persons) as well as informed consent. THIS IS FOR A DISCUSSION POST. ISBN:978-0-323-43131-6 THE BOOK CAN BE USED AS A REFERENCE.
Nursing Research Discussion
Understanding the ethics that surround nursing research processes is key to ensuring that researchers take appropriate measures when collecting evidence to promote evidence-based practice. Most nursing research studies usually involve human subjects as participants (LoBiondo-Wood & Haber, 2017). Due to power differences between the researchers and study participants, researchers may abuse, exploit, or mistreat human subjects thereby exposing them to great risk of harm like what happened to black men in the Tuskegee Study conducted in Alabama between 1932 and 1972 (Alsan & Wanamaker, 2018). The purpose of this discussion is to describe the ethical principles, including the process of obtaining informed consent, to be considered when planning and conducting a study aimed at assessing the effects of music therapy (listen to CD for 30 minutes prior to bedtime) on the sleeping behaviors of 2nd stage Alzheimer patients in a nursing home.
Ethical Principles
When planning and conducting nursing research with human subjects, the researcher(s) should consider the three ethical principles described in the Belmont Report namely; respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. The principle of respect for persons holds that the researcher should treat study participants as autonomous agents and respect their right to self-determination. People with diminished autonomy such as persons with cognitive incapacitation are entitled to protection under the same principle (Lepore et al., 2017). To embrace the principle of respect for persons in the planned study, the researcher will provide study subjects with detailed information about it, including the risks and benefits involved, to enable them to make informed decisions as to whether they should participate or not.
Although there might be minimal harm involved in the implementation of music therapy to patients with second-stage Alzheimer’s disease, the researcher(s) must consider the principle of beneficence in order to secure the well-being of participants. The principle of beneficence holds that the researcher has the obligation to do no harm, minimize possible harms, and maximize possible benefits (Lepore et al. 2017). The researcher will demonstrate the principle of beneficence in the proposed study by conducting a comprehensive assessment of the degree, as well as the nature and scope, of risks and benefits that participants will be exposed to during the study. Based on the information gathered, the researcher will make efforts to either eliminate or completely remove potential unjustified risks should there be any.
The principle of justice is an important one to consider when conducting research with patients with second-stage Alzheimer’s disease. In health research, the principle of justice holds that the researcher should demonstrate fairness in the distribution of resources or in the implementation of interventions. The researcher should ensure that participants bear equal burdens associated with research procedures (Lepore et al., 2017). In the planned study, the researcher will observe the principle of justice by exhibiting fairness when selecting subjects to participate in the study. Besides, the researchers will administer the music therapy for equal durations (30 minutes) with all study subjects without favoritism.
Obtaining Informed Consent
Informed consent is the best way to demonstrate adherence to the principle of respect for persons and it requires that a person must have the cognitive ability to understand research protocols and be able to make a voluntary decision to participate or not participate in a study. Patients with second-stage Alzheimer’s disease are considered vulnerable persons who may require protection during the research (Lepore et al., 2017). Notably, their capacities to make decisions might fluctuate over time during the study due to disease progression. Therefore, to obtain informed consent in the proposed study, the researcher will conduct decisional capacity assessments using evidence-based practice tools (Thorogood et al., 2018). Only those who can communicate consistently, understand research protocols, understand risks and benefits, evaluate options, and make choices will be allowed to give consent. The researcher will use surrogate decision-makers to obtain informed consent from patients with diminished decisional capacity.
References
Alsan, M., & Wanamaker, M. (2018). Tuskegee and the health of black men. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 133(1), 407–455. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjx029
Lepore, M., Shiman, S., Wiener, J., Gould, E. (2017). Challenges in involving people with dementia as study participants in research on care and services. https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/challenges-involving-people-dementia-study-participants-research-care-services-0
LoBiondo-Wood, G. & Haber, J. (2017). Nursing research: methods and critical appraisal for evidence-based practice. 9th ed. Mosby. ISBN-13: 978-0323431316.
Thorogood, A., Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen, A., Brodaty, H., Dalpé, G., Gastmans, C., Gauthier, S., Gove, D., Harding, R., Knoppers, B. M., Rossor, M., Bobrow, M., & Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, Ageing and Dementia Task Team. (2018). Consent recommendations for research and international data sharing involving persons with dementia. Alzheimers & Dementia, 14(10):1334-1343. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2018.05.011. Epub 2018 Jul 2. PMID: 30293575.