Padgett's Core
Padgett bases her qualitative ethics framework on three classic principles from this famous 1979 report.
What is the Belmont Report?
Morse's #1 principles states that in healthcare settings, this always supersedes research procedures.
What is clinical care/patient safety/medical treatment?
The continuous self-examination of how a researcher's identity, privilege, and personal background influence data collection and analysis.
What is reflexivity (positionality)?
Traditional IRBs were historically designed around quantitative designs and these types of medical trials.
What are clinical trials?
A participant breaks down in tears during an interview about their illness. The researcher offers a break and provides a list of support resources. This addresses risk of this type of harm.
What is Emotional harm (Retraumatization)?
Procedural ethics (receiving IRB approval) guarantees that a qualitative study will be ethically sound in the field. (True or False)
What is false?
According to Morse, if a participant's safety is threatened or a life-threatening disclosure occurs, this ethical promise is legally and ethically overridden.
What is confidentiality?
Viewing informed consent as an ongoing, continuous dialogue throughout the study rather than a single signed document at the start.
What is process consent?
Quantitative designs assume risks are fixed in advance, whereas qualitative designs are characterized by this property, where questions and settings evolve.
What is Emergent (Inductive) design?
A transcriber listening to 20 hours of traumatic interviews feels overwhelmed and stressed. The research manager schedules a debrief session. This address this concept.
What is Vicarious Trauma or Research Team Safety?
Padgett argues that in qualitative research, this dynamic is rarely achievable because researchers directly interact with participants.
What is True Anonymity?
Morse suggests institutions establish this independent, third-party role to protect patients and handle malpractice without losing participant trust.
What is Ombudsman (3rd party mediator)?
The ethical principle of ensuring a mutually beneficial, two-way relationship where researchers give back to the community being studied.
What is Reciprocity?
Padgett suggests that when dealing with IRBs, qualitative researchers should educate boards and frame methodological flexibility as a strength rather than this.
What is a flaw (lack of planning)?
A nurse interviewing a patient notices the patient's IV is leaking. The nurse pauses the audio recorder to call the floor nurse before continuing. This follows which of Morse's principles?
What is principles #1 (Medical/Emergency care as priority over research)?
To protect confidentiality when reporting sample traits, authors should present participant details as group summaries rather than doing this.
What is creating detailed demographic matrices/tables?
When a clinician conducts qualitative interviews with their own patients, severe issues arise regarding this topic.
What is role confusion (practitioner/researchers boundary blur)?
Sharing preliminary findings back with participants to ensure their narrative was captured accurately and fairly.
What is Member Checking?
Instead of submitting a rigid script of questions to an IRB, qualitative researchers should submit this type of guide that outlines themes while allowing adaptation.
What is an Indicative Interview Guide?
A study on a small local hospital use fake names, but lists participants as "Chief of Surgery, 52" and "Charge Nurse, 29". This creates a high risk of this.
What is Re-Identification (breach of confidentiality via indirect identifiers)?
Padgett warns against this unethical practice, where a researcher enters a vulnerable community, takes data, and leaves without returning benefits.
What is "helicopter research" (extractive research)?
Morse's Principle #6 reminds us that ethics extend inward, requiring safety protocols and debriefing sessions for these team members.
Who are field researchers, interviewers, and transcribers?
Non-name details (job title, age, specific clinic) that can inadvertently reveal a participant's identity.
What are Indirect Identifiers?
This approach to risk management predicts all risks ahead of time with fixed protocols, whereas qualitative ethics requires managing risks as they arise in real time.
What is Deductive vs. Inductive Ethics?
A researcher presents study results to a city council and local advocacy group using non-stigmatizing language, fulfilling his ethical obligation.
What is Ethical Dissemination (Community Engagement)?