Ethical decision making in clinical research: application of CELIBATE

The need for high-quality evidence to support practice is an ongoing issue in occupational therapy. As a consequence, growing numbers of occupational therapists are engaged in both clinical practice and research activities. Therapists who find themselves in these dual roles are sometimes faced with ethical conflicts when the responsibilities of being a researcher appear, on the surface, to diverge with the responsibilities of being an occupational therapist. This article applies one clinical tool, CELIBATE, to problem solve through an ethical dilemma experienced by a clinician involved in research. Based on the experience of using the tool, recommendations are presented to make CELIBATE more useful in research situations.