Quick and dirty? A systematic review of the use of rapid ethnographies in healthcare organisation and delivery

Vindrola‐Padros, Cecilia; Vindrola-Padrós, Bruno

doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2017-007226

Cited by 176 publications

(170 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The majority of studies also did not directly discuss the impact of the researcher's presence during the observations and in the data collected. The researcher's reflective stance is highlighted as key in the process of ethnographic research (Vindrola‐Padros & Vindrola‐Padros, ), considering how the observer's emotions and rationality may impact on their observations (Watts, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic review of observational studies of adult home care

Leverton

Burton

Rees

et al. 2019

Health Soc Care Community

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The home‐care workforce is in high demand globally. Home‐care workers provide care for people at home, including practical and personal care, as well as other tasks such as medication management. We conducted a systematic review with the aims of understanding methods of observation that have been employed to study home care and to explore how these methods have enabled researchers to understand the quality of home care. We searched the literature using PubMed and CINAHL databases in May 2018, with no limits applied to date of publication. We searched for MeSH terms of ‘Home Care Services’, ‘Home Health Care’, ‘Home Nursing’ and ‘Observation*’. Across 15 eligible studies, the types of observation methods employed were categorised as structured, guided and unstructured. The characteristics of these methods, such as the level of participation adopted by the observer, varied across the studies. Three themes were developed through a narrative synthesis of the included studies’ findings: ‘The impact of care delivery and organisational factors’, ‘Observing relationships and communications’, and ‘People and places behind closed doors’. We conclude that methods of observation are a fairly novel, yet rich and meaningful way of exploring home‐care practice. Researchers undertaking observations should consider elements such as the number of researchers observing and the potential for variations, how and when to record the observations, possible triangulation of data, the researcher's reflective stance as an observer, as well as ethical considerations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic review of observational studies of adult home care

Leverton

Burton

Rees

et al. 2019

Health Soc Care Community

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“…There has been a tendency for different types of quick ethnography to be non‐theoretical, but we find it essential that focused ethnography studies let theoretical insights inform the interpretation of data. Using different theories and theoretical concepts can be a way of making overly familiar data look alien, and thereby generating new insights into a specific phenomenon (eg the use of positioning theory involves seeing positions rather than individuals).…”

Section: How To Conduct Focused Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Several introductions and guides to how to conduct ethnography in medical education have been published, all focusing on what might be called ‘traditional ethnography.’ However, over the past years, new ethnographic methods have increasingly been adapted in health care research. Prominently, a number of short‐term ethnographic research approaches have been introduced under various labels such as rapid ethnography, micro‐ethnography, quick ethnography, rapid ethnographic assessment and, indeed, focused ethnography . These types of short‐term ethnographies have been dubbed half‐jokingly, half‐mockingly as ‘quick and dirty.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These types of short‐term ethnographies have been dubbed half‐jokingly, half‐mockingly as ‘quick and dirty. ' as they fail to meet one of the central features of traditional ethnography: the (year‐)long fieldwork during which the researcher is immersed in the foreign field to develop rapport with the informants and provide thick descriptions of social structures, actions and meanings . The different types of short‐term ethnographies have been criticised for not being ethnographic in the truest sense, but merely pragmatic and cost‐effective ways of producing simplified answers to complex questions …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Focused ethnography as an approach in medical education research

2020

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Context Over recent decades, the use of qualitative methodologies has increased in medical education research. These include ethnographic approaches, which have been used to explore complex cultural norms and phenomena by way of long‐term engagement in the field of research. Often, however, medical education consists of short‐term episodes that are not bound to single sites, but take place in a myriad of locations and contexts such as classrooms, examination stations, clinical settings and online. This calls for methodologies that allow us to grasp what is at stake in an increasingly multifaceted and diverse field. Methods In this article, we direct attention to focused ethnography, which has emerged as a useful, suitable and feasible applied qualitative research approach, and which uses adapted classic ethnographic methods, such as direct observation, to gain new insights and nuanced understandings of distinct phenomena, themes and interactions in specific settings in medical education (eg the learning potential of ward rounds, or how hierarchical positions affect learning situations). We introduce methodological key features of focused ethnography to give insights into how the approach can be used, and we offer examples of how the method has been used in medical education research to show how it has contributed in different ways to the field of medical education research. Furthermore, we address and discuss some of the main challenges and limitations of the approach. Conclusions Focused ethnography offers a methodological approach that sheds light over limited and well‐defined social episodes and interactions. Precisely because the field of medical education consists to a large degree of such fragmented interactions, focused ethnography can be seen as a methodology tailored to these characteristics and should become an integrated part of the toolkit of medical education research.

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“…In BMJ Quality & Safety , Vindrola-Padros and Vindrola-Padros10 report a systematic review of the use of ‘rapid ethnographies’ in healthcare organisation and delivery. They argue that rapid approaches to ethnographic data collection are important in health services research for ‘generating findings within timeframes when they can still be actionable and used to inform improvements in care’.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%