Common misunderstandings in Project Ethics

Quality Improvement (QI) and evaluation projects have become increasingly important, multiplying in number and growing in complexity. Although ethics oversight principals and processes are well established for research projects, a gap exists for non-research projects. Many QI and evaluation projects have ethical implications, but ethics screening and review processes are often limited and inconsistently applied. This uncertainty and inconsistency often leads to misunderstandings about how and when ethical implications should be addressed in QI and evaluation projects. Reviewing the following common misunderstandings and our responses to them should help clarify these issues for you and reinforce that sound practice requires integrating ethical considerations into your QI and evaluation projects to ensure that people are protected and respected.