Video recording as a data collection method in vulnerable populations - methodological and ethical considerations

Video recording vulnerable situations in healthcare practice raises ethical challenges that require addressing throughout the research process. Such challenges are linked to protecting research participants and assessing when and how using video recordings is appropriate.

This article aims to present methodological and ethical considerations inherent in video recording vulnerable participants and to offer future researchers concrete guidance and inspiration as to how they might assess these aspects of their own planned video research.

As a group of researchers who have used video recordings to collect data of patients in vulnerable situations, we reflect upon our own methodological and ethical choices against the backdrop of other research studies and ethical guidelines.

Video recordings provide a unique opportunity to observe human interaction and to understand more about how we relate to each other. This article contributes to knowledge regarding empirically and ethically sound practice. We have demonstrated how methodological and ethical considerations are intertwined and should be treated as such.

There are no existing guidelines or tools specifically for conducting and reporting qualitative studies using video recording that link the ethical considerations to the methodological choices. This article could provide a point of departure for establishing a reflective tool.