The polio survivor as expert: implications for rehabilitation nursing research.
Clients' personal experiences with illness or tragedy can uniquely qualify them as experts in many research-relevant content areas. Nurse researchers can benefit from this expertise by involving such clients in important decision-making aspects of research planning. The advantages of consulting with client-experts in the early and subsequent stages of research are discussed in this article, which uses as an example the way such consultation has worked in the development of a study of coping in polio survivors. Consultation with client-experts is especially appropriate when research involves sensitive issues or the measurement of subjects at vulnerable periods in their lives. It is advocated as a means of helping to ensure that participants are questioned in the most ethical, sensitive way possible and that the research will address the needs and concerns of the target population.
R W
RW
Bell
S P
SP
Damrosch
E R
ER
Lenz
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D015399:Nursing Research; D010358:Patient Participation; D010934:Planning Techniques; D016262:Postpoliomyelitis Syndrome / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*