JenniferSpartzResearchExercise20IRBTraining

Research Exercise 20 IRB Training and Relating it to Interviews To be able to participate in the asthma interviews, it was necessary to complete the basic course for students set up by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). This training consisted of 33 modules. Each module had an article that must be read, then a quiz that was taken to ensure that the module was understood. Overall, the modules were focused on what could be considered ethical and legal research. While not the most stimulating group of articles, there were interesting subjects brought up in each section. The first section consisted of articles on the background of how students today are allowed to be conducting research and how today’s research has to be conducted based on the codes set down since the Nuremburg trials. These laws help ensure that safe and ethical research is being done, especially on human test subjects. As part of the research we intended to do included interviews, humans were considered to be test subjects. This is because we would be recording their personal thoughts and memories. The sections of modules that pertained to these recordings were those about informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, records based research, and knowing how to determine vulnerable test subjects. To ensure that we had gained informed consent of our interviewees, we had to make sure they knew the purpose of the study they were participating in. We also gave them highlights as to what they would be asked and told them they were not required to answer if they were uncomfortable with any of the questions presented to them. We told them how the interviews were going to be reported and what information would be available to the public. After ensuring that they fully understood what we were asking of them, they signed the informed consent form and then we started the interview. As part of the agreement, confidentiality was offered to each person being interviewed. The basic idea of privacy and confidentiality was if someone were to read the conclusions or report of the research, would they be unable to trace the results back to the person that they are about. By only reporting on the general statements made during the interviews, it is possible for the confidentiality of the interviewees to be maintained. The next section that had to do with our study was about maintaining the records of each person studied. The training was mainly about how to keep records safe from the possibility of someone stealing them for personal information about the test subjects. In our study the only two things recorded were the interviewee’s first name and hometown. All other information could not lead to one specific person immediately. The final section that may possibly have had to do with our project was about the possibility of vulnerable test subjects. This means that they are not old enough or mentally capable of understanding what is expected of them. In the case of prisoners there is no say whether they can participate or not. There are also cases involving pregnant women and fetuses, children, workers, and prisoners. None of these people can be considered completely informed for various reasons, which excludes them from many studies. Overall, the IRB training was useful in attempting to understand what was to be expected of the interviewers in the contract between interviewer and interviewee. It was interesting and many interesting ideas were presented that allowed the reader to think in a different light about a research situation.