Ethical considerations are crucial in research because they enable trust between the researcher and participants, ensuring the safety and confidentiality of stakeholders. For the current assignment, I assumed the role of the principal investigator to examine the importance of ethics through the educational video. The first choice I had to make concerned the approval from IRB about the protocol. As the PI, I accepted the delay and decided to wait for permission because it was crucial to obtain consent from the participants and authorize the study. In the opposite case, it would have been more challenging to mitigate participant bias because the lack of consent could be associated with coercion (Passer, 2020). For the second choice, I decided to intervene in the informed consent procedure and ensure that the participants thoroughly understood the protocol. It was vital that they grasped the objective and process of the experiment because this approach generally mitigates bias and eliminates additional risks of physical harm (Passer, 2020). In summary, I learned that informed consent is crucial in ethical considerations because it improves the quality of research and creates trust between the researcher and the participants.
If I had made different choices and ignored the IRB and protocol explanation procedures, the results of the study could have been different. One of the reasons is that the experiment would have had more participants with a lower understanding of the protocol, which could alter the outcomes (Passer, 2020). In experiments with medication, it is significantly safer and more reliable to involve only those participants who understand the procedure and its objective. Lastly, there were several factors that could lead to unethical choices. For instance, the PI in the video could have ignored the official IRB procedure and not intervened in the explanation because of stress and impatience. In the video, he mentioned that such procedures were not required several years ago, and he could have allocated more time to his own patients by ignoring IRB. These reasons are clear examples of stress and personal traits that might interfere with the experiment procedure, and it is crucial that experts control themselves to avoid making unethical choices.
Reference
Passer, M. (2020). Research methods (3rd ed.). Macmillan Higher Education.