Accessing vulnerable research populations: an experience with gatekeepers of ethical approval

Accessing vulnerable populations for research purposes can be difficult, as participants must be sheltered from research that might be insensitive, intrusive, and potentially distressing. People diagnosed with a life-limiting condition may be vulnerable, and involving such people in research samples may be fraught with difficulties. Nevertheless, it is important that these vulnerable populations participate in health and social-care research so that their requirements and opinions can be learnt. This paper describes an experience of proceeding through an ethical approval process for a proposed qualitative research study into the preferred place of death of a group of potentially vulnerable hospice patients. Research of this nature had never been undertaken at the hospice before, and the researchers expected to encounter a degree and variety of gatekeeping when seeking access to this sensitive population.