I would like some input please. I am conducting a process evaluation of a novel community health worker intervention in England. I am involved with the steering groups as a participant observer, assisting with developing the pilot, but also keeping a record of what is said and done so as to inform my evaluation. My aim in the evaluation is to look at contextual and systems factors that impede or enable the implementation. The bulk of my data will come from interviews with provider stakeholders, but I would also like to use the detailed notes I've taken in the steering meetings as field notes. The notes only pertain to the development of the pilot - there is no patient identifiable information in there.
I am in the process of applying for NHS ethics and I am unsure about how to approach this question of my role as a participant observer. To include the notes I've taken to date I would also need to get consent to be granted retrospectively. Has anyone had any experience of something like this? Am I being unrealistic about what an ethics committee will grant? Should I just focus on the interviews and use my records to date to help me develop my topic guides?
Any thoughts or suggestions will be gratefully received. Thanks.
Focusing on the outcomes of the interviews and using all notes to develop the topic guides will be of more advantage and whatsoever conclusions arrived at from the evaluation study will be realistic.
Students at UoL have dissertation chairs to help guide them through this process. Reach out for assistance, as they are the experts who can answer these unknowns.
In regard to ethics for participant observation, the guidance as per following publications may further help, namely: Ethical Concerns in Participant Observation (DeWalt and DeWalt, 2010, Chaper 11, pp. 211-226);
Ethical Issues in Observation (Baker, 2006, pp. 184-185), etc.
- Baker, L. M. (2006) Observation: A Complex Research Method, Library Trends, 55, 1, pp. 171-189.
- Boote, J. and Mathews, A. (1999) "Saying is one thing; doing is another": the role of observation in marketing research, Qualitative Market Research, 2, 1, pp. 15-21.
- DeWalt, K. and DeWalt, B. R. (2010) Participant observation: A guide for fieldworkers. Second edn. Plymouth, United Kingdom: AltaMira Press.
- Kawulich, B. B. (2005) Participant observation as a data collection method, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6, 2, pp. 1-22.
- Oliver, J. and Eales, K. (2008) Research ethics: Re-evaluating the consequentialist perspective of using covert participant observation in management research, Qualitative Market Research, 11, 3, pp. 344-357.
When we are confronted with ethics in participant observation in any field of study/research, please be aware and read more on "Reflexivity" and "Thomas Theorem". These two concepts will make us understand how our perception and assessment of reality could skewed !
All the best Mr. Andrew Riley in your research process !
I don’t think you will get an ethics committee to grant permission retrospectively. I would just use your notes to help direct the research. My colleague Timothy Milewa and I used participant observation in researching decision-making in the NICE committees. We obtained consent prior to fieldwork Google Timothy Milewa Christine Barry. Full text available online.
Saludos, sugiero que leas la experiencia de Lidia Ivonne Blásquez Martínez "Los métodos etnográficos como herramienta de la política pública: el ejemplo de la estrategia de flujos migratorios en contextos de inseguridad y violencia":
"Todo esto lo registré en mi diario de campo, que si bien no formaba parte del programa piloto me fue de mucha utilidad para estructurar la estrategia que mi equipo elaboró como propuesta de política pública en el marco de las competencias del CNPDYPC". (p.122).
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