Provision 7

All nurses have a professional and ethical obligation to protect those who participate in research and uphold the ethical conduct of research. Informed consent is an important ethical requirement intended to respect the choices of individuals, their preferences, and their goals of research participation. Informed consent is not a one-time event. It is a process that requires ongoing consideration of capacity, engagement, and understanding. Individuals have the right to choose whether to participate in research. Participation must be free from coercion or exploitation. Participants or alternate decision-makers must be provided with sufficient and relevant information in their preferred language, at a suitable literacy level to make decisions consistent with the participant’s values. Part of this process involves allowing time for decision-making, addressing any misconceptions, and answering questions. Informed consent must also include the understanding of the right to decline to participate or to withdraw at any time without fear of adverse consequences or reprisal.

Nurses, whether acting as principal investigators or as part of a study team, are often responsible for obtaining informed consent from potential study participants. This includes discussing with individuals the voluntary nature of the study, the elements of the research study, its potential benefits and risks, alternatives to participation, and the right to withdraw or refuse to participate. Nurses are also in a position to answer any questions that participants might have and to continually assess their willingness and ability to participate in research.

Research or scientific integrity encompasses values of honesty, accountability, collegiality, and transparency in all aspects of the research process from developing research questions to dissemination of the data that help cultivate trust in science. Nurses have an ethical responsibility to disseminate their research findings and other scholarly activities, including negative findings. This dissemination is ethically required in order to honor the participation of study participants. Misconduct can, and does, occur in nursing research or other types of scholarly inquiry. Misconduct has traditionally been defined by the following acts: plagiarism (using another person’s ideas without appropriate attribution), falsification (misrepresenting research through manipulation of data) and fabrication (making up data or results). Misconduct can also be considered anything that violates the norms of integrity, accountability, collegiality, and transparency.

A community-based participatory approach is key to designing, implementing, and disseminating scholarly inquiry that supports and further advances the interests of the community, avoids harm to these communities and individuals, and builds trust with communities of interest. As nurses produce and apply nursing knowledge, it is incumbent upon them to consider the assumptions, strengths, and flaws built into the evidence base. Health sciences research frequently reproduces unchecked assumptions about historically- and presently-minoritized populations, giving rise to underrepresentation of some groups and overrepresentation of others in research, leading to an evidence base distorted by oppression. Nurses ought to be alert to research that is not value-neutral. Marginalized and socially disadvantaged or disempowered communities and groups have been exploited and harmed by researchers who perpetuated prejudices and flawed findings. Nurses ought to recognize that the existing evidence base reflects a history and record of unjust research practices, which reflects researcher and social biases.