Every day, I see more and more respiratory therapists involved in scientific research. Whether the topic involves bedside care, theoretical concepts, or educational practices, our members are making a huge impact on the literature base of the profession. One of the more frequent questions I am asked involves getting started in research. What are the "rules" of initiating, participating in, and analyzing research?
The short answer is that research is much more than simply thinking to yourself, "Oh! That's an interesting question! We need that information to better care for our patients. I'm going to ask all of the respiratory therapists I know to answer my survey!" Planning for research is likely one of the most important steps.
It is important to remember that research is a systematic process that results in disseminated results. That is, this process will yield information that you wish to share with the community. Because this information will be (we hope) published, we have to follow some ethical guidelines and federal regulation to protect our research participants...even those who only take an anonymous survey. Most major publications will ask that you provide proof that you've gained approval to complete your study and publish results.
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is tasked with making sure what you do is on the up-and-up. Most big research institutions have their own IRB. All IRBs follow guidelines set forth in
45 CFR 46 (federal regulations). The IRB will ask for information like:
- Why are you gathering information and why is this an important research question?
- What information are you gathering?
- From whom are you gathering information? (Informed consent is a major tenant in health research.)
- When will you gather this information?
- How will you gather this information?
- What will you do with this information?
- How will you ensure the privacy of your subjects? (No one wants their potentially embarrassing information out there!)
- Will this harm your subjects? (Yes, physical harm, but also emotional harm and psychological harm.)
- Will you offer compensation to your subjects? (This is tricky...compensation is ok as long as it is in line with the amount of work asked of your subject but isn't so much to coerce someone into participating.)
- How will you recruit your subjects? (Again-it is important that we're not exploiting or coercing someone into participating.)
- What will you do with the data when it is collected?
If you're interested in WHY these are regulated concepts, check out the DHHS website for background info.
But don't let the IRB scare you. Yes, they have a lot of rules, but they are also (in my experiences) very helpful. They don't want to discourage research; they just want to make sure it is performed while also protecting the subject. So, the next time you think of that AWESOME research question, give your institution's IRB a call and see what they say about how to get approval to explore that question. We need more quality research to direct our patient care!!