Multi-Institutional Healthcare Ethics Committees, Essay Example

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is responsible for upholding the ethics of research projects that involve human participants (Pope, 2009). The purpose of the IRB proposal is to disclose the extent to which a potential project could harm human participants, if applicable, and to receive permission to begin a project (Creswell, 2014). All projects that involve humans or their specimens must be subject to IRB approval, although projects that will cause minimal or no harm to patients will likely be expedited without the need for a formal review by the committee.

When an IRB proposal is drafted, it is similar to the research proposal, but structured in a manner that emphasizes the disclosure of information that is pertinent to the health and safety of human participants (Hamer & Collinson, 2005). After submitting the document, the committee may require the author to attend an IRB meeting in which the researcher discusses the proposal and answers any questions that the committee may have. At this point, the committee is able to allow the project to occur, request that alterations to the proposal be made, or reject it outright.

The IRB is formed by the local organization, either at the university or hospital level. According to law, there must be a minimum of five members on these boards. The committee must include both men and women, have one scientist, and one non-scientist. The design of the committee is in place to ensure that the intensions of all researchers are equally represented and that the ethical opinions of individuals from a variety of perspectives can be offered. Overall, the IRB is in place to protect the rights of the patients and to ensure that harm does not befall them.

References

Creswell, J. (2014). Research design (4th ed.). Thousand Oakes, California: Sage Publications, Inc. [CourseSmart version]. Retrieved from http://www.coursesmart.com

Hamer, S. & Collinson, G. (2005). Achieving evidence based practice: A handbook for practitioners. (2nd ed.). New York City, New York: Baillere Tindale.

Pope, T. M. (2009). Multi-Institutional Healthcare Ethics Committees: The Procedurally Fair Internal Dispute Resolution Mechanism. Campbell Law Review, 31: 257-331.