Research governance in care homes is a complex process, due to the ambiguous status of the care home as a public and a private space. As such, public sector research governance processes may infringe individual's rights to make decisions about participation in research, while treating the processes of informed consent as a purely individual matter may fail to safeguard individuals who may be vulnerable. This paper discusses these dilemmas in the light of existing research governance frameworks, and goes on to outline protocols that the team have developed for their own use.
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