Abstract
Fieldworkers (FWs) are community members employed by research teams to support access to participants, address language barriers, and advise on culturally appropriate research conduct. The critical role that FWs play in studies, and the range of practical and ethical dilemmas associated with their involvement, is increasingly recognised. In this paper, we draw on qualitative observation and interview data collected alongside a six month basic science study which involved a team of FWs regularly visiting 47 participating households in their homes. The qualitative study documented how relationships between field workers and research participants were initiated, developed and evolved over the course of the study, the shifting dilemmas FWs faced and how they handled them. Even in this one case study, we see how the complex and evolving relationships between fieldworkers and study participants had important implications for consent processes, access to benefits and mutual understanding and trust. While the precise issues that FWs face are likely to depend on the type of research and the context in which that research is being conducted, we argue that appropriate support for field workers is a key requirement to strengthen ethical research practice and for the long term sustainability of research programmes.
Highlights
The diverse challenges faced in applying research principles across different societies, communities, and study types underscore the importance of taking contextual factors and social relations into account when conducting research.11 J
Et al Taking social relationships seriously: lessons learned from the informed consent practices of a vaccine trial on the Kenyan Coast
The main activities and offices of KEMRI Kilifi are within Kilifi District Hospital (KDH), with many research activities conducted within the surrounding communities included in the centre’s health and demographic surveillance system.[12]
Summary
The diverse challenges faced in applying research principles across different societies, communities, and study types underscore the importance of taking contextual factors and social relations into account when conducting research.[1]. Et al Community members employed on research projects face crucial, often under-recognized, ethical dilemmas. We have argued elsewhere that the practical and ethical strengths and challenges that community-based staff or fieldworkers face is likely to differ depending on study type and on how embedded they are in the particular communities involved in that research.[8] There can be a spectrum of employees, from those employed from local communities to continue to live in and work among those same communities, to those employed to live in a central place and work across large geographical areas. We highlight the important but highly complex ethical work being conducted by frontline staff, and the impossibility of this work being monitored and supervised remotely
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