Jokwiro, Yangama
Urbanavicius, Tracy
Robinson, Ainsley M.
Scott, Cathy
Islam, Md Rafiqul
Article History
Received: 10 March 2022
Accepted: 11 March 2022
First Online: 22 March 2022
Declarations
:
: The study received necessary ethical approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the participating hospital (GVH 16/20). The study adhered to the principles of the Helsinki Declaration and the National Health and Medical Research Council’s statement for the ethical conduct in human research. All participants received an information letter which outlined the purpose of the study, invited them to participate and guaranteed anonymity and consent was implied if the participant returned the questionnaire. The study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee at Goulburn Valley Health (Reference Number GVH 16/20) to use implied informed consent, which meant that consent was obtained from participants if and when they returned a completed study questionnaire after reading the information letter which outlined the process. The reasoning behind this was to protect participant anonymity, privacy and autonomy, as far as possible by distributing study questionnaires at ward levels, making sure the informed consent to participate was made actively, individually and independently by those staff that completed and returned study questionnaires. This means that informed consent was implied in their active, autonomous and anonymous decision to participate.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare no competing interests.