Building research capacity with members of underserved American Indian/Alaskan Native communities: training in research ethics and the protection of human subjects.

OBJECTIVE

To develop a research ethics training course for American Indian/Alaskan Native health clinic staff and community researchers who would be conducting human subjects research.

METHOD

Community-based participatory research methods were used in facilitated discussions of research ethics centered around topics included in the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative research ethics course.

RESULTS

The community-based participatory research approach allowed all partners to jointly develop a research ethics training program that was relevant for American Indian/Alaskan Native communities. All community and clinic partners were able to pass the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative course they were required to pass so that they could be certified to conduct research with human subjects on federally funded projects. In addition, the training sessions provided a foundation for increased community oversight of research.

CONCLUSIONS

By using a collaborative process to engage community partners in research ethics discussions, rather than either an asynchronous online or a lecture/presentation format, resulted in significant mutual learning about research ethics and community concerns about research. This approach requires university researchers to invest time in learning about the communities in which they will be working prior to the training.