Transcript Slide 1

HAVE YOU DONE
HUMANITARIAN
AID WORK?
WE ARE INTERESTED IN UNDERSTANDING THE
ETHICAL CHALLENGES
FACED BY HEALTH PROFESSIONALS (HP) WHO HAVE WORKED
IN RESOURCE POOR SETTINGS & AREAS OF DISASTER
WHAT is the purpose of this
study?
To collect stories of ethical
challenges HPs faced while
working in resource poor
settings and areas of disaster.
WHO can participate?
Any heath professional (MD,
nurse, midwife, student MD etc)
who has done humanitarian aid
work.
WHAT is being asked of
you?
You would be asked to
participate in a 90 minute
interview and share your
experiences about providing
health care in resource poor
settings and areas of disaster.
“When I first started
doing this work, there
was never any kind of
briefing about
anything...I never
actually attended any
pre-departure
sessions that talked
about ethics.”
What useful information will result from this
study?
• The creation of an ethical toolkit that can be used
by HPs to prepare them to enter or re-enter the field
of humanitarian aid work.
• The findings will help inform policy makers who
support humanitarian aid work.
Examples of ethical
challenges
• Being expected to
perform medical
procedures that the worker
is untrained for, but where
no one else is available to
do it.
• Being obligated to
adhere to organizational
mandates with which the
worker disagrees.
• Sending expired
medications to developing
countries.
CONFIDENTIALITY
All personal information
will be removed from any
information collected.
This study have been reviewed by,
and received ethics clearance
through, the Office of Research
Ethics, McMaster University
Study funded by Canadian
Institutes of Health Research
“I saw a pregnant
woman who had severe
eclampsia, and whose
blood pressure, despite
delivery of the baby,
continued to climb.
Drugs that I would
normally give only when
a patient was attached to
every monitor I could
think of are infusing a
few hundred metres
away with only "30 drops
per minute" written on
the clear bag.”