NIH Protecting Human Research Participants Course - Coursework Example

Protecting Human Research Participants NIH Protecting Human Research Participants Protecting human participants’ course is an important reflection of milestones that have shaped human research. Notable developments have been made. This development led to the setting of some mechanisms to protect human subjects in research (Resnik & Ness, 2012). It is worth nothing that developing new knowledge or even ascertaining existing ones requires a human to act as research subjects; this is inevitable irrespective of invasiveness of the study (Bradbury-Jones, Taylor, & Herber, 2012).

However, this course affirms that it is possible to pursue the noble knowledge at the same time provide safety for these subjects. Under the principles of beneficence, the research should pursue good over harm in a fair and within a respectful framework. In my institution, we carry research in three areas including orthopedics, psychiatry and neuroscience. All these areas involve human participants, and thus issues of minimal protection come to play. Because of this recognition of protecting human participants, our institution has complied with some requirements.

More importantly, NIH Office of Extramural Reserach, (2010) states that an Ethical Review Board (ERB) is tasked with reviewing research proposals to ensure they are within the ethics and moral framework (Fiske & Hauser, 2014). The institutional review board is made up of four members from diverse disciplines. This is quite relevant because the formation of ERBs should be based on a multiplicity of professional knowledge. Besides, this committee meet twice every week to execute their mandate.

This again is another prove that they act in line with the provisions of IRBs as stipulated by the National Institute of Health (NIH). Furthermore, they are involved in reviewing ongoing research and those with changes during the stretch of research. They are powerful committee that can evoke an ongoing study if there are substantial grounds to believe that an ongoing study has violated these principles. From these functions and organization, our ERB meets the NIH minimal protection of human participants.

Reference Bradbury-Jones, C., Taylor, J., & Herber, O. R. (2012). Vignette development and administration: a framework for protecting research participants. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 17(4), 427–440. http://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2012.750833 Fiske, S. T., & Hauser, R. M. (2014). Protecting human research participants in the age of big data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(38), 1–2. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1414626111 NIH Office of Extramural Reserach. (2010). Protection of Human Research Participants.

Resnik, D. B., & Ness, E. (2012). Participants’ responsibilities in clinical research. Journal of Medical Ethics, 38(12), 746–50. http://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2011-100319