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Human Research Protection Videos

Student’s Name

Course

Tutor

Date of Submission
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Caring corrupted: The Killing Nurses of the Third Reich

The video explores nurses' role in endangering vulnerable people at the behest of political

and administrative authorities. It demonstrates what happens when professional caregivers adopt

a partisan approach to medical care and abuse their access, professional skill and capacity in the

social and professional hierarchy.

Multiple points of importance manifest in the video and, most importantly, the one that

emphasizes the need for prioritizing ethical principles in nursing practice (Cizik School of

Nursing, 2017). The video's content and presentation implicitly advocate for a nurse practice

hinged on ethical decision-making and whose practices and operations focus on saving lives.

Research Ethics Involving Human Subjects

The purpose of the video is to contextualize the need for an ethical framework in research

and demonstrate the impact of the absence of such a framework. This, the video accomplishes

with a brief retelling of the Nuremberg Trials of 1945. The trial documented the extent of

damage to innocent people that the Nazi-led human experimentation manifested. The account

shows the worst of unchecked human experimentation, with its fatality and lingering

consequences on people.

Most importantly, the video discusses major points concerning human experimentation

and its ethics. The aspect of informed consent as a requirement for human experimentation

emerges as a key issue (Daigle, 2014). Its importance, the video rationalizes, is embedded in the

fact that informed consent allows for autonomous participation in an experiment and prevents

Nazi-style coercion as participants get to know, understand and subsequently sign up to

participate in the study.

The Belmont Report (Part One: Basic Ethical Principles)

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment in the 1970s and the Nuremberg Trials thirty years

before convinced the United States of the need for a commission to regulate human research. The

U.S. government thus created the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of

Biomedical and Behavioral Research, supervising biomedical and behavioral research in the

country (IRBMed, 2011a). The purpose of the video is to introduce audiences to the commission

and, most importantly, explain the basic ethical principles of respect for persons, beneficence and

justice as fundamental to human experimentation.

The balance between risk and benefit is important in human research, and the video

confirms that assertion. It suggests that beneficence should be a guiding principle in human

research ethics. It is a guiding component because it dictates that any thought of human research

should only materialize if the benefits far outweigh the risk and are feasible for all stakeholders

involved in the process.

The Belmont Report (Part Two: Applying the Principles)

The video, The Belmont Report (Part Two: Applying the Principles), purposes to

expound on the basic ethical principles of justice, respect of persons and beneficence. In addition

to explaining what they stand for, the video explains how they are manifest and what lengths or

implementation capacity researchers should explore in considering these principles when dealing

with human subjects.

Of importance is the speaker's concern about respect for a person. It is important to note

that the capacity for individual human autonomy constitutes a part of respect for persons

(IRBMed, 2011b). Therefore, any research involving human subjects needs to, among other
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things, ensure that the participants have as much choice and say in the process as possible,

especially when it involves their involvement and their bodies.

Guiding Principles of Institutional Review Boards (IRB)

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) provide much-needed protection to individuals and

participants involved in a research process that uses human subjects. The video referenced

purposes of elucidating the roles and responsibilities of IRBs with particular context and

attention directed towards entities within the United States. It tries to help its audiences

understand what such entities do, where their power comes from and the principles that underlie

their regulatory responsibilities.

Its main point as an educational video is that IRBs primarily exist to protect the safety

and welfare of human research participants. This, the video says it does by ensuring compliance

with four elements in a research process. These elements include respect for persons, justice,

beneficence and respect for laws and regulations (Medicine, 2015). Compliance with all four

results in an experimentation process that is friendly, tolerant and sensitive to its participants and

their needs.
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Reference

Cizik School of Nursing. (2017). CARING CORRUPTED - The Killing Nurses of The Third

Reich. In YouTube. [Link]

Daigle, D. (2014). Research Ethics involving Human Subjects [YouTube Video]. In YouTube.

[Link]

IRBMed. (2011a). The Belmont Report (Part One: Basic Ethical Principles) [YouTube Video].

In YouTube. [Link]

IRBMed. (2011b). The Belmont Report (Part Two: Applying the Principles) [YouTube Video].

In YouTube. [Link]

Medicine, J. H. (2015). Guiding Principles of Institutional Review Boards (IRB) [YouTube

Video]. In YouTube. [Link]