Which hat am I wearing today? Practising midwives doing research

Authors: Ryan, K., Brown, S., Wilkins, C., Taylor, A., Arnold, R., Angell, C. and Van Teijlingen, E.

Journal: Evidence Based Midwifery

Volume: 9

Issue: 1

Pages: 4-8

ISSN: 1479-4489

Abstract:

Doing research and practising as a midwife at the same time can lead to ethical conflicts as the ethical codes for midwifery practice and those for conducting research are subtly different. We use five narrative case studies of midwife-researchers, who have struggled with ethical considerations doing research as a practising midwife, to distil some of the key conflict areas. The key issue was around multiple and conflicting roles including the ethical issues of confidentiality and trust. Potential ethical dilemmas seemed to be related to the amount of control the midwife-researcher had over the research process, especially data collection. We conclude that it is time to discuss the issues and consider how best to support midwife-researchers; we must trust the researcher to make the best possible ethical decisions as we trust the health professional to in practice; and ultimately ethics governing practice must be given priority. © 2011 The Royal College of Midwives.

Source: Scopus