Using ethnography to study improving healthcare: reflections on the ‘ethnographic’ label

While methods broadly described as ‘ethnographic’ have been increasingly employed to research the organisation and delivery of healthcare,[1-4] a single or widely-accepted definition of ethnography has proved elusive and perhaps unnecessary.[1,5] Nonetheless, even as authors publishing in this journal have adapted ethnographic approaches for the purpose of studying improving quality and safety in healthcare, they have often attempted to retain some of its anthropological “essence”.[6] For instance, Dixon-Woods [7] characterises ethnography in terms of its focus on observational methods, questioning of the taken for granted, description and analysis of routine behaviours in their natural settings, and use of the researcher’s own skill and judgement to both gather data and to interpret them drawing on social theory.