Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the barriers to, and promises of, the use of negotiated process consent to include older adults with varying cognitive capacities in ethnographic research in the care home setting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

This ethnographic project examines care home residents' experiences of dignity and wellbeing during COVID-19. Viewing experiences of wellbeing as embedded within interpersonal negotiations, this research project highlights residents’ behaviours and stories as data to reveal complexities and contradictions in this taken-for-granted space. In order to include participants with varying cognitive capacities, this project uses negotiated process consent to include the voices of older adults in a residential care setting during COVID-19. First, in exploring the design of this project and its journey through University, UK, and EU ethics approval processes, this paper takes a critical view on gatekeepers, and the ethics of consent, in order to view the impacts that ‘bounded’ and protected care settings may have on the agency and rights of older adult research participants. In analysing the process of seeking ethical approval for this project during the pandemic, this paper offers timely insight on issues of gatekeeping, especially when working with adults with reduced mental capacity. Furthermore, the findings of this project consider the complex methodological issues of engaging adults with varying capacity to participate in research, de-centering the interview as a sole story-source, and engaging in creative and flexible ways to promote the engagement of diverse voices in qualitative care research.