The polio survivor as expert: implications for rehabilitation nursing research

Clients' personal experiences with illness or tragedy can uniquely qualify them as experts in many research-relevant content areas. Nurse researchers can benefit from this expertise by involving such clients in important decision-making aspects of research planning. The advantages of consulting with client-experts in the early and subsequent stages of research are discussed in this article, which uses as an example the way such consultation has worked in the development of a study of coping in polio survivors. Consultation with client-experts is especially appropriate when research involves sensitive issues or the measurement of subjects at vulnerable periods in their lives. It is advocated as a means of helping to ensure that participants are questioned in the most ethical, sensitive way possible and that the research will address the needs and concerns of the target population.