The 1960s obedience experiments of Stanley Milgram have become a hallmark of social behavioral research, as well as a cautionary tale for those involved in human subjects protection.
Researchers at the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL, are studying physical interventions used in a virtual world. Their work opens new horizons for rehabilitation clinical care, but also raises new questions for ethics review boards.
As virtual space technology improves, researchers are beginning to study how it can be used to help patients who've suffered traumatic brain injuries or other impairments that require rehabilitation.
The IRB office at the Washington University in St. Louis, MO, (WUSTL) will soon have an electronic system that will connect the IRB submission with every other application principal investigators (PIs) need to make.
IRBs that deal with social-behavioral-educational research might need to give investigators who also conduct biomedical research updated information and education about how to handle informed consent.
In planning the recently launched National Children's Study (NCS), researchers knew that ethical and IRB issues would be front and center.
In trying to replicate the Milgram obedience experiments, social psychologist Jerry Burger had to balance the goal of getting useful results that were roughly comparable with Milgram's, while providing more protection for participants from severe stress.
Family-centered care is becoming a familiar concept. It is defined by the Institute of Family Centered Care in Bethesda, MD, as: "an innovative approach to the planning, delivery, and evaluation of health care that is grounded in mutually beneficial partnerships among health care patients, families, and providers."
Some health care facilities provide medical treatment to people throughout the United States, while others serve those who live in the surrounding neighborhood. Whatever the demographics, it is important for a family advisory council to represent the diversity of patients and families served, states Cezanne Garcia, MPH, senior program and resource specialist for the Institute of Family Centered Care in Bethesda, MD.
Do you work with a unit on education resources for a homogeneous patient population? Do you find that the bedside nurses on this unit struggle with time management because they are repeating the same patient instructions to almost every patient they care for? Is it possible for patients on this unit to leave their room and go to a centralized location for about 30 minutes or so?
