Ethics Guidance for Occupational Health Practice 9th Edition - Book - Page 91
5. Academic Occupational Health: Research and
Training
A. Research
5.01. Research is essential to the successful development of evidence-based practice
in occupational health, and a healthy research sector is vital to the continuing
protection of people at work.
5.02. Many occupational health professionals will engage in research during training
and for some this is a required part of accreditation. The need to undertake
research may also arise as part of professional practice, for example
investigating a disease cluster or emerging occupational risk factors. It is
well established in law, ethics and professional guidelines that research will
respect the rights and privacy of the individual and the business, even if there
is potential for public benefit. Therefore, the careful management of ethical
issues is an important and integral component of good research practice.
5.03. Most funded research in occupational health is carried out through academic
centres that should have established procedures and access to expertise in this
area. Notwithstanding the context of the research and the funding body, all
occupational health professionals must comply with the ethical guidance of the
research including anticipation and addressing of the main ethical issues that
might arise from their research.
Determining what constitutes research
5.04. A common area of difficulty for occupational health professionals is deciding
whether the activity they wish to undertake constitutes research or not. The
Research Governance Frameworks for Health and Social Care 66 define ‘research’
as: “the attempt to derive generalisable new knowledge by addressing clearly
defined questions with systematic and rigorous methods.”
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