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Blurred Researcher–Participant Boundaries in Critical Research: Do Non-clinicians and Clinicians Experience Similar Dual-Role Tensions?

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Abstract

Boundaries between research and clinical practice blur in health research conducted by clinician-researchers. We describe a typology, of clinician-researcher dual-role tensions, with two overarching catalysts: (1) acting as a clinical resource for patient-participants and (2) forming researcher–participant relationships mirroring clinician–patient relationships. Using the typology as an analytic template we explored blurred boundaries in five illustrative, non-clinician, critical studies. Like clinician-researchers, critical researchers act in ways that promote rapport and relationships with their participants, which can blur boundaries. While clinician-researchers see tension between clinician and researcher roles, we ask what roles critical researchers attempt to distinguish: ethically minded citizen and researcher, socially conscious community member and researcher, or friend and researcher? Anticipating catalysts of dual-role tension may assist critical researchers in planning and conducting robust research.

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Correspondence to Jean Hay-Smith .

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Hay-Smith, J., Brown, M., Anderson, L., Treharne, G.J. (2018). Blurred Researcher–Participant Boundaries in Critical Research: Do Non-clinicians and Clinicians Experience Similar Dual-Role Tensions?. In: Macleod, C., Marx, J., Mnyaka, P., Treharne, G. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Ethics in Critical Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_10

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