Guidance on Performing Focused Ethnographies with an Emphasis on Healthcare Research

Authors

Gina M.A Higginbottom, University of AlbertaFollow
Jennifer J. Pillay, University of AlbertaFollow
Nana Y. Boadu, University of AlbertaFollow

Abstract

Focused ethnographies can have meaningful and useful application in primary care, community, or hospital healthcare practice, and are often used to determine ways to improve care and care processes. They can be pragmatic and efficient ways to capture data on a specific topic of importance to individual clinicians or clinical specialties. While many examples of focused ethnographies are available in the literature, there is a limited availability of guidance documents for conducting this research. This paper defines focused ethnographies, locates them within the ethnographic genre, justifies their use in healthcare research, and outlines the methodological processes including those related to sampling, data collection and maintaining rigour. It also identifies and provides a summary of some recent focused ethnographies conducted in healthcare research. While the emphasis is placed on healthcare research, focused ethnographies can be applicable to any discipline whenever there is a desire to explore specific cultural perspectives held by sub - groups of people within a context - specific and problem - focused framework.

Keywords

Focused Ethnography, Healthcare Research, Qualitative Methodology, Guidance

Publication Date

3-4-2013

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2013.1550

Recommended APA Citation

Higginbottom, G. M., Pillay, J. J., & Boadu, N. Y. (2013). Guidance on Performing Focused Ethnographies with an Emphasis on Healthcare Research. The Qualitative Report, 18(9), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2013.1550