Nurses involved in research must recognise their professional responsibility for safeguarding the rights of child research participants. The starting point is an understanding of ethical and philosophical principles, argues Tessa Woodfield

Recent changes in nurse education have increased nurses’ awareness and interest in research, and this has, in turn, led to an increase in participation and initiation of research by nurses. As children’s nurses seek to establish themselves in the field of research, it is important that we consider the ethical values and philosophical principles involved. While acknowledging that the nurse participating in research activity involving children is under the same ethical constraints as his or her non-paediatric research colleagues, Brykcynska (1) suggests that there are some ethical and philosophical issues which are either unique to, or of increased significance in paediatric research. This article focuses on children of primary school age (5-11 years of age) and the following definitions are used to underpin the discussion: