Research Ethics Approval

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It’s one thing to put together the Research Ethics Board application. It’s a step in the process toward completion. It’s another thing to get requests for revisions. These are intended to improve and ensure clarity of the documentation and intentions for the research. Then, finally, you receive the approval letter with the strictly worded warnings and established timelines for reporting. A small cheer emerges as you realize that you’ve achieved another milestone.

Reality then hits. Now you have to do what you’ve set out to do. It’s time to lace up those marathon shoes for what’s yet to come. Your plans and dreams of conducting PhD research are about to be realized. Yet, this is over-shadowed by a realization that you don’t know what you don’t know. There are many still hidden skills to acquire, many more challenges to face, and many more tasks to accomplish. The daunting task laid out before you can excite or overwhelm, both within the same minute!

When I opened the email with the REB approval letter, I felt all of these. After that initial cheer, I suddenly felt like a PhD researcher. I had accomplished another step in completing the PhD I had begun over two years ago. I could do this! I gave myself permission to celebrate this moment, and shared the news with family and friends.

The next day, reality hit. The daunting task of completing the research now faced me, and there was nowhere to hide. My lack of skills and fluencies with research was a looming weakness that could become a larger barrier to getting this work done. So many who have gotten to this point don’t complete their PhD. Once again I waffled between moving forward and just stopping here. I took some time, a few weeks of reflection, to review and renew my commitment to going on and going further. I reread those initial posts I wrote so long ago. I remembered why I started this work in the first place. I gained strength from this reflection and recommitted to forging ahead.

Once again, I focus on completing this PhD – step by step, one step at a time.