Introduction
In the previous paper, the issue of antihypertensive therapy and patient education after coronary artery bypass surgery was disclosed, and the most suitable research method for the topic was identified. It is indeed essential, after the invasive manipulation, to estimate the adequacy and efficiency of the therapy controlling blood pressure numbers within normal parameters (Melly et al., 2018). However, to realize the study properly, one should follow certain principles and values to provide participants of the study with appropriate and acceptable conduct. This assignment will focus on ethical aspects of future research and disclose ethical implications in sampling, recruitment, data collection, and reporting.
Research Sampling
Sampling is a useful method in research that aids the investigator to realize a study without taking every individual from a large population. For instance, approximately 340,000 coronary artery bypass surgery operations occur yearly in the United States (iData Research, 2018). It is far from achievable to include every patient that received the surgery in the research, and sampling helps to limit the number of participants to save costs and time. Moreover, sampling still allows us to rely on data received from a smaller group of people and estimate average indicators and information gathered from the participants.
For the current research, a target population is the patients of various ages (above 18) that received coronary artery bypass surgery within the last 5 years in the cardiac surgical department of the local hospital. It is important to track the blood pressure numbers and the effectiveness of antihypertensive therapy during the early postoperative period and several years after the operation. The latter is significant for the research as the patient might develop various concomitant pathologies. Their initiation can intrude into the postoperative period of the CABG surgery and lead to more serious consequences and destabilization of blood pressure numbers. These factors are additional and interfere with the estimation of the current research. Thus, the inclusion criteria for the study are the fact of having the CABG surgery after 2017 and the absence of comorbidities developed after the operation. To create an inclusive sample, the patients’ files can be selected regarding the operation date, with the help of the electronic health records systems of the hospital. The files can be further selected according to patients’ recent physician attendances and history of their concomitant disorders.
Additionally, to provide every member of the targeted population a chance to be selected, the probability samples will be held. That will decrease the possible bias in the process of sampling. Probability sampling combined with random sampling is essential for the ethical approach to the research and provides more reliable and unprejudiced data for the study. Representativeness and randomization also keep replication of the larger statistical group and include people of various ages that have different comorbidities before the surgery was done.
Ethical Recruitment
The recruitment of the participants is one of the central ethical concerns of the research organizational process. To ensure the participants are recruited equitably, the randomized system will select participants of various ages and pathologies. However, before contacting the potential members of the study, it is essential to form clear and accurate information about the aims and goals of the research. This data is then sent to federal regulations and Institutional Review Board (IRB), and, after their approval, the participants can be invited to take part in the research (Borno et al., 2019). The IRB checks the application for the various ethical considerations such as respect for privacy and the lack of pressure meaning the ability of every member to refuse to participate in any period of the research.
Additionally, the IRB checks for the biased presentation of the study, and avoidance of the therapeutic misconceptions. In the application, the researcher also states how the participants will be sampled and how they will be proposed to join the study. Similar ethical considerations will be included in the informed consent providing the patient’s autonomy and not hiding information about the research from the participant. The member of the study signs the consent voluntarily, any intimidations and pressure on the participant make the document invalid. The informed consent will be collected according to the member’s privacy, confidentiality, and preserving the integrity of the participant’s narratives.
Data Collection
Adherence to ethical principles in data collection is essential for the researcher and the members, as following these norms defines the outcomes of the study. Primarily, the investigator should avoid any forms of bias when collecting data, analyzing it, and making conclusions (Wolf et al., 2018). In quantitative research, the risks to receive falsified and fabricated outcomes are minimized; however, the misconception and misinterpretation of the statistical analysis remains a threat to reliable conclusions. Moreover, during data gathering, the participants cannot be caused any physical, or emotional damage, or suffer from unethical, biased attitudes related to their gender, ethnicity, origin, religion, and other personal factors.
The patients will be having 24-hour monitoring of blood pressure and will be also asked about their current medications, habits, daily routines, and if they follow the rules of secondary preventative therapies. The data gathered is mostly quantitative but includes communication with participants regarding their lifestyles. If the patient wants to leave the study, it is possible at any step of the research as the participant’s rights and preferences are respected and considered. To avoid the patient’s misinterpretations, concerns about risks, and other factors that could have been prevented, the researcher regularly collaborates with the participant and answers his questions.
Reporting
Reporting the conclusions and findings should be correlated with ethical principles as well. The data received during the study should be stated according to norms of confidentiality and anonymity (Milton, 2018). Every member of the research can have a number or a shortened abbreviation of their first and family names. Then, publishing the content of the research will stay useful for the interested individuals and protect the personal information of each patient. Reporting findings should at the same time be transparent and honest without gaps in calculations and avoid misinterpretations of the data.
Conclusion
The current research is based on the postoperative period of coronary artery bypass surgery and the most effective combination of medications and patient education strategies impacting the patients’ blood pressure numbers. This assignment considered ethical implications for such parts of the research as sampling, recruitment, data gathering, and reporting. It is essential to underline that ethical principles are central for both the researchers and the participants. For investigators, any forms of bias, falsification, and fabrication of data lead to false conclusions and outcomes. Regarding participants, they should be guaranteed that, during the research, they will experience no harm or discrimination, that their rights will always be considered, and their data will be confidential and anonymous.
References
Borno, H. T., Bakke, B. M., Kaplan, C., Hebig-Prophet, A., Chao, J., Kim, Y-J., Yeager, J., Cinar, P., Small, E., Boscardin, C., & Gonzales, R. (2019). A step towards equitable clinical trial recruitment: A protocol for the development and preliminary testing of an online prostate cancer health information and clinical trial matching tool. Pilot and Feasibility Studies 5(123), 1-8.
iData Research. (2018). New study shows approximately 340,000 CABG procedures per year in the United States. Web.
Melly, L., Torregrossa, G., Lee, T., Jansens, J. L., & Puskas, J. D. (2018). Fifty years of coronary artery bypass grafting. Journal of Thoracic Disease, 10(3), 1960–1967.
Milton, C. L. (2018). Ethics and the reporting of research findings. Nursing Science Quarterly, 32(1), 23-24.
Wolf, S. M., Clayton, E. W., & Lawrenz, F. (2018). The past, present, and future of informed consent in research and translational medicine. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 46(1), 7-11.