Maintaining the Anonymity of Vulnerable Subjects

Abstract

Current North American standards for research on human beings assert that the researcher must inform potential participants about the study and, without coercion, obtain their consent to participate. Sometimes, however, nurses initiate research on people who are dependent upon them. The dependent relationship raises questions about whether potential participants are able to consent without coercion. Dependent groups include patients or families of patients. Nurses may also be vulnerable to coercion if the researcher is a nursing administrator studying nursing practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategy used by researchers who faced the problem of dependency in a study of head nurse stress. Investigators included nursing administrators with managerial responsibility for some of the participating head nurses. The strategy adopted was to keep participants unknown to the researchers. The tactics that were used will be discussed, as will evidence for their importance and effectiveness. The problems that were created by using these tactics will also be examined.