PHM588 Report: Research Ethics in Aboriginal Communities

This report examines the ethical considerations involved in a qualitative research project evaluating health service delivery in three remote Aboriginal communities. The research involved interviews with both Aboriginal community members and health professionals, highlighting the importance of addressing ethical challenges related to the diverse participant groups. The report emphasizes the need for reflexivity, cultural sensitivity, and informed consent, particularly when working with indigenous populations. It discusses the significance of respecting cultural property rights, ensuring language accessibility in informed consent processes, and recruiting culturally competent research staff. The report also addresses the maintenance of research rigor by avoiding bias, utilizing culturally appropriate tools, and adhering to ethical guidelines to ensure the credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability of the research findings. The ultimate goal is to enhance knowledge translation, research capacity, and fulfill ethical responsibilities in the research process.

Running head: RESEARCH ETHICS
Research ethics
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Considering the nature of qualitative research, there is significant interaction between
researchers and participants that increases the chance of risk and biases and ethical challenges
while conducting research. Paying attention to rigour in research design and consideration of
anonymity, privacy and confidentiality, informed consent and ethical approval is crucial to
ensure that the findings obtained are not controversial (Sanjari et al., 2014). Hence, ethical
values in research determine that the relationship between researchers and participants are
based on trust and transparency. This discussion presents a research scenario where different
participant groups were interviewed and ethical method of research was completed. It
discusses about the impact of ethics on the quality of the research.
The research scenario is related to the evaluation of the effectiveness of health service
delivery in three remote aboriginal communities in the NT. The research project involved
taking interviews with both Aboriginal community members and health professionals. As this
project involves two diverse participants group with different language, culture and
educational levels, engaging in reflexivity is crucial to implement ethical practice during the
research process. Firstly, as indigenous group is a special population in this research, it will
be necessary to balance culture as well as ethics during the research process. This will
involve considering the knowledge system and language of indigenous people. Researchers
must respect the cultural property right of this people in terms of language expression,
knowledge and cultural expression. Their cultural values should not be disrespected at any
time during the research (Mc Loughlin, Hadgraft, Atkinson & Marley, 2014). This can be
fulfilled by taking steps to recruit staffs with cultural sensitivity knowledge so that they can
effectively take interview with this group.
Informed consent is an important ethical requirement in research which ensures that
the research participants are made aware about the research aim, procedures, key risk and
benefits before participation in the research. This is an important ethical consideration for

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research involving human participants as it ensure that participants voluntarily confirms their
willingness to participate in research process (Nijhawan et al., 2013). However, many
challenges arise in taking informed consent from indigenous group if it is not delivered in
appropriate manner (Minaya & Roque, 2015). Hence, to promote rigour while including
aboriginal communities in the research process, it will be necessary to ensure that informed
consent process is completed in a language which is easily understood by the participants
(Nijhawan et al., 2013). As knowledge of English and diversity in terms of language spoken
may be high in case of Aboriginal people, it will be necessary to recruit aboriginal staffs
during the process. These groups should be asked to give informed consent information,
details about the research project, confidentiality issues and risk in research. Taking this step
will address language gap and also ensure that transparency is maintained during the process.
Rigor in research involves taking all possible steps to satisfy the criteria of credibility,
transferability, dependability and confirmability of the research findings. Rigour in research
can be maintained by taking steps to ensure that the beliefs of aboriginal people and the
researchers does not clash with each other during data analysis method. To ensure cultural
sensitivity and evaluation of research outcomes based on cultural heritage and values of
participants, it will be crucial to avoid bias in terms of culture and race. To address this, it
will be necessary to have culturally competent research staffs and assistant and ensure that
any tools used are consistent with the aboriginal people beliefs and cultural values. Quality
appraisal tools can be used that is informed by ethical standards and guidelines for
conducting research with indigenous people. This will ensure any form of selection or
publication bias is eliminated (Kinchin et al., 2017). Taking this step will ensure effective
knowledge translation, research capacity enhancement and fulfilment of ethical
responsibilities during the research process.

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References:
Kinchin, I., Mccalman, J., Bainbridge, R., Tsey, K., & Lui, F. W. (2017). Does Indigenous
health research have impact? A systematic review of reviews. International journal
for equity in health, 16(1), 52.
Mc Loughlin, F., Hadgraft, N. T., Atkinson, D., & Marley, J. V. (2014). Aboriginal health
research in the remote Kimberley: an exploration of perceptions, attitudes and
concerns of stakeholders. BMC health services research, 14(1), 517.
Minaya, G., & Roque, J. (2015). Ethical problems in health research with indigenous or
originary peoples in Peru. Journal of community genetics, 6(3), 201–206.
Nijhawan, L. P., Janodia, M. D., Muddukrishna, B. S., Bhat, K. M., Bairy, K. L., Udupa, N.,
& Musmade, P. B. (2013). Informed consent: Issues and challenges. Journal of
advanced pharmaceutical technology & research, 4(3), 134–140.
Sanjari, M., Bahramnezhad, F., Fomani, F. K., Shoghi, M., & Cheraghi, M. A. (2014).
Ethical challenges of researchers in qualitative studies: the necessity to develop a
specific guideline. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 7, 14.