I SHOULD be spray painting rubber boots, making superhero emblems, and decorating that seriously gorgeous float sitting in our outbuilding. And Emmy just called from the Mardi Gras store… I could be with Emmy in a Mardi Gras STORE!?! My priorities are way out of whack, ’cause that is what I should be doing.
Instead, I’m redoing my consent (or at least complaining about it) because the IRB people don’t like that I wrote a sensible, understandable, useful form (in two languages, don’t forget that part!) I didn’t correctly use their template and didn’t have a running footer with the version date. Apparently, you MUST use their ALL canned fill for ALL project submissions, even when it includes stuff about my salary from the research (what?!) and the potential profit in the sale of body parts (hello, this is qualitative research, people!) I understand and respect the IRB process and generally think it’s super fantastic that they are mandatory, but seriously… isn’t rational thought involved anymore??
Actually, what is pissing me off isn’t all of that… bureaucracy I can reasonably handle. I’m ticked that I requested meetings 3 weeks ago to go over these details and was blown off… three times. So I’m irritated that NOW I’m having to make changes. I guess it could be worse… they could’ve flat out denied me and made me do the whole process again. Aye, when I think about all the trees who gave their lives for this submission…
elisa | 31-Jan-08 at 9:08 am | Permalink
ahhhh….. your love of your IRB is as great as mine for my IRB. my favorite revision was to exclude pregnant women from a retrospective review…. can i help it if people were pregnant when they got ill and really, is reading their chart going to change the outcome of their pregnancy? and, we have the same prewritten forms that CANNOT be changed no matter how ridiculous they might be for a certain study…. ANNOYING!!! good luck!!!
Cold Spaghetti | 03-Feb-08 at 7:11 pm | Permalink
I feel better that others’ processes are similarly frustrating. I can appreciate why a large system wants universal forms… but goodness! (In a retrospective review of medical charts, depending on the study focus and methods, excluding those who were pregnant could be argued as a strong selection bias issue?) I also wonder if the process is beginning to more strongly reflect the liability issues for the University than protection of human subjects. Which means the real culprits are those blood-thirsty lawyers!!! 🙂