How to… Secure Ethics for Research with Health Professionals
Acquiring ethical approval to conduct research into doctors’ sexual misconduct proved a more complicated process than initially anticipated. We sought to interview professionals who had worked on investigating or trying cases of doctors’ sexual misconduct. Initially, this largely consisted of lawyers and investigative consultants, and ethical approval was received from the University research ethics committee (ref: 17289). However, it soon became clear that the biggest gap in existing knowledge concerns how cases are investigated at the level of individual NHS organisations, which required that we access professionals working in safeguarding, human resources, and senior management within NHS Trusts.
If a study involves NHS staff as participants, but does not use NHS resources to recruit them, then a decision from an NHS research ethics committee is usually not required. However, given the sensitive nature of the topic, we contacted the NHS Health Research Authority (HRA) to inquire as to the approvals needed. We were told that we did not need HRA approval, but it was recommended that we apply to NHS research ethics. After discussion with the research governance team at the University of Bristol, we decided that the received guidance does not say that we must apply for ethical review, just that it is possible to do so. However, having not applied, this may have had ramifications for data collection. Some NHS professionals have seemed reticent to share our study information without an Integrated Research Application System (IRAS) number, which is received alongside NHS approval. This has led to us chiefly relying on snowball sampling to recruit NHS professionals.
© Emma Yapp for the Powerful Perpetrators project, 2026.