Nursing Research Controversy

In todays society, the common consensus about human experimentation is that it is unethical, however, people in the past believed it was necessary to advance scientific discoveries. The Tuskegee syphilis study is a prime example of how scientists in the past disregarded the ethics of human experimentation to enhance scientific research. The study was an experiment where four- hundred to six-hundred uneducated African American men were tricked into being tested. Most of the patients were injected with the disease and left without treatment to discover its effects, while the others were safe being used as controls. This experiment lasted for Forty years and was probably the biggest example of unethical human experimentation in America. Fortunatley, the contrivertial actions taken in the experiment lead future generations to create the law of informed consent where the patient understands what will happen during their treatment. The inspiration for researching this topic was how in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, by Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta was used for a scientific study without her consent. In relation to Henrietta, the men in the syphilis study were not aware of what was happening to them and were experimented on without their consent. Overall, the human experimentation in the Tuskegee syphilis study was unethical in many ways.

Ethics, in our society, are the moral principles that govern our behavior, dictating what is right from wrong. The specifics of ethics changes as values in our society change and evolve. This occurs in Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. One major reoccurring theme in the book is the lack of informed consent and autonomy. Fortunately, now there are safeguards which protect human rights in regard to health care and research. The Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, now part of the Department of Health and Human Services, created The Belmont Report, which is one such safeguard establishing principles for all human research (USDHHS, 1979). This paper will discuss the ethical issue of informed consent within The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the disregard to parts of the Belmont Report, as well as compare the role of the nurse in charge of Henrietta’s care versus the standards of care set for modern nurses.

The ethicacy of human medical research must be brought into question when the studies such as the Tuskegee syphilis and Mississippi appendectomies are examined, the results reviewed, and consequences justified. The word study is very appropriate as the men who participated in the Tuskegee study were not given a treatment or cure

The medical world has never been black and white. A lot of the medical discovers had multiple ethical gray areas. Through the questionable testing and nameless patients, doctors were able to get away with faulty practices. Particularly in America during the 20th century, doctors from the United States Public Health Services observed the effects of Syphilis, an infectious diseases, on 600 African American males. This was called the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. For 40 years the doctors watched how the disease attacked the human body. Instead of curing the patients the doctors left them infested. The ethical issue at hand is seen in the actions and in the rituals of the doctors presiding over this experiment. Ancient philosophers such as Confucius and Aristotle would agree with this ethical issue. Confucius’s role ethics will show that the doctors were deficient in performing their roles properly, and Aristotle’s virtue ethics will show that the doctors are not acting in accordance with virtue. Therefore, the doctors were acting in an unethical capacity.

Syphilis Study at Tuskegee is a historical example of the dishonesty of medical clinical research was done to poor African participants. From that experience, researchers should have a better understanding on what ethical values are important to be considered to have volunteers to participant in medical research. And also, researchers should explain the nature of the study and have the consent of the participant to create a trust bond between participant and researcher.

In the case of the Public Health Service (PHS) experimenting on inmates at the Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary for prophylaxis in gonorrhea, the study was abandoned at a critical stage in its development where a line would have been crossed, exposing moral and ethical boundaries set about in countries such as the U.S. as far as research on human subjects is concerned. The study was undergone with less regulation as a result of the decision to extend the research beyond borders to study syphilis, use subjects from a Guatemalan National Penitentiary with the mere consent of their supervisors (not from the subjects themselves), along with the differences in human rights policy in this nation, whereby human rights to justice and moral obligation issues were jeopardized. The questions would therefore be: can it be well argued that the actions of the PHS and the OverNow study were morally justifiable under the given circumstances while conducting their research abroad?

Today, we know that nurses have an ethical duty to intervene when an unethical practice is found, both for the safety of the patient and the integrity of the title RN. Nurses may have difficulty intervening with unethical practices of a doctor because of the negative effects it may have on the working relationship. However, after reviewing what occurred within the Tuskegee study, we’ve seen what happens when a nurse fails in this duty.

Two key events stand out as symbolic of this consensus. The Nuremburg War Crimes Trial following World War Two, which involved German scientists’ using captive humans as subjects in often gruesome experiments. In 1950s, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study concerned the withdrawal of recognized effective treatment for syphilis from African-American subjects who were infected. Horrific events like these forced a re-examination of the ethical procedures involved in social research to protect human subjects from being used as ‘guinea pigs’, in scientific research (Sarantakos, 2012).

I believe that nursing should be based on a continuum which includes; research, practice, and theory. As the professional nurse role has evolved each of these concepts collectively define the profession. “New knowledge is generated and effective interventions are developed through nursing science, new avenues for implementation, dissemination, and sustainability must also be considered” (Grady & Gough, 2015, p.518). Theory provides the foundation on which nursing as a profession is built. The ability to generate and apply theory defines the legitimacy of the profession (McCrae, 2012, p.222). Practice provides specific examination and experience that is important to the role of the nurse. Research is imperative to the advancement of care and

It was noted that many ethical issues may arise, relating to eligibility and criteria in identifying the subjects to be used for testing. It was also noted that laws and regulations were formulated based on unethical principles that took place in the past. The most obvious ones were the Tuskegee syphilis study, where the black male were used for the experiment. This study comprised of 600 African- American men, about 400 with syphilis cases and 200 men without syphilis, in other words, the control group. And many of them died due to the study. It was discovered that none of them were informed about the possible cure, neither were they treated with antibiotic (http://phrp.nihtraining.com). Also, another unethical research practice conducted was the Nazi Medical War Crime, in this experiment, thousands of prisoners were tortured by injecting them with gasoline and live viruses, immersing them in ice water and forcing them to ingest poisons. Based on the information gathered from the reading, I have realized that before an individual become part of a research study, there has to be an informed consent. Informed consent promotes autonomy, which brings about respect for the person's dignity. Therefore, in order to protect the participants in research, the ethical principles have to be followed. Such

When you think of medical research, you probably think of lab rats. The “lab rats” in both Tuskegee syphilis study and the nazi human experiments were living human beings. History repeats itself as the two studies occur with the same intention and procedures. It was a result of ignorance and the idea of hierarchy: superiority and inferiority. The inhumane action of the researchers led to policies that protects against barbarous experiments.

The results of the study were summarized and the conclusion was clear. With the interventions provided, the vaccination rates did not have a significant spike until the time frame of the H1N1 and Avian flu threat. The study showed that the physician rates increased with the interventions but this was not the case with the nurse group. The vaccination rates were tracked from those that were vaccinated at that facility and did not take into account those who were vaccinated elsewhere. Fear of the side effects was the most common reason that the nurse group gave for not being

The purpose of this paper is to examine the components of the contracts of nursing primarily the primacy of the patient and ethical practice in relation to the controversial use of Henrietta Lacks’ cells (HeLa) in research and other medical studies without her and her families’ consent. The social contract of nursing encompasses the responsibilities of the nursing profession and other health care professionals entrusted by society through licensure. Through this contract, nurses are expected to function and have the obligation to provide all members of society who need medical care regardless of their cultural, social, spiritual and economic status with honest and respectful service keeping in mind the public’s trust. Furthermore, it is expected that medical professionals provide patients their right to self-determination and control over their care.

The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is a statistical technique of comparing the means of more than two groups. In my career specialization, the following research question can be addressed using a one-way ANOVA. Does the type of trauma (complex trauma, early childhood trauma, neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse) influence the severity of trauma among children in foster care? The one-way ANOVA is appropriate for the research question because it will enable the researcher to evaluate the mean differences in trauma scores among the groups simultaneously. Importantly, the ANOVA will help to differentiate between real differences and chance variation in the variable means.

The most impactful thing I learned this week in class is everything we discussed about politics in nursing. Many people do not realize or want to imagine how deeply politics affects nursing. Now vs thirty years ago is very different. Thirty years ago, there were not nearly as many nurses there are now. This year we are actually electing a new president which could affect nurses and our patients very much. When addressing this topic, we discussed what this would mean for health care. Depending on the president, we will find out what type of health care there will be. We will see if people will get more or less help. We will view either America's care for the people go up or down. If less people are able to have healthcare because of a new preseidnet,