Imagine that you are
doing a program evaluation. You will survey participants before the program
begins and again after the program. In order to match each person’s pre and
post program survey, you will have them write their names on each form. Somehow
during the data collection a few surveys get left behind. This is a breach of
confidentiality. Someone else could see the responses and know who wrote them.
In a program setting, that may not seem a serious offense, but consider if it
was one’s supervisor that saw a derogatory comment about him or herself.
What to do? First, as
soon as the loss is realized, get the surveys back in your possession. Second,
report the breach to your committee and the IRB. They may want you to notify
the individuals involved, but let them make that decision. You also may want to
consider not using names in studies, instead ask people to pick a number or
phrase that they will enter on the pre survey and remember for the post survey.
Next time, we will discuss depression. Do you have an issue
or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an
email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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