Complexities of ethnography

Abstract

UNDERTAKING RESEARCH using an ethnographic approach can be one of the most challenging routes to generating new knowledge in nursing and health care. These challenges can include the time required to gain access to the research site, the duration and complexity of data collection, the role of the researcher and the impact the researcher might have on data collection and analysis. Ethnographic approaches are not new to nursing and health care but this approach to generating new knowledge has not been adopted as widely as other qualitative approaches. One reason for this could be that students undertaking undergraduate or master’s research projects much less frequently gain experience in using ethnography because of the practical and theoretical complexities outlined. As a result, these researchers are less likely to consider ethnography in their future research endeavours. This edition of Nurse Researcher includes two papers that describe the experiences of researchers who have undertaken different types of ethnographic research in very different research settings. In the first paper, Mahon and McPherson (2014) describe their experiences of undertaking a study exploring factors influencing nurses’ decisions to stay or leave bedside nursing using critical ethnography. In the second paper, Pereira de Melo et al (2014) describe the experiences of researchers undertaking three different ethnographic research projects in Brazil. Both offer a fascinating insight into how these researchers managed some of the complexities often encountered when conducting ethnographic research. All researchers will be familiar with the multiple barriers that need to be negotiated and managed before they can access a research setting. Pereira de Melo et al (2014) suggest that these can be particularly challenging in ethnographic research and might include hierarchies that exist between different professional groups and the need not to disrupt routines and protocols. Ethnography draws heavily on prolonged observation as the main means of data collection and this can sometimes be perceived as threatening by those who will be observed. It is for these reasons that researchers need to seek acceptance or trust in the research setting and why observation needs to be for a prolonged period of time. Pereira de Melo et al (2014) suggest that one important way to help overcome some of the access barriers is to discover and build an influential friend. This individual might be able to help negotiate access to the research site and to help the researcher become accepted once in the research site. It is clear that such strategies do not happen by accident and will need to be incorporated into the detailed planning of the research project. As noted, in ethnographic research it is required that researchers engage with participants in their lives for an extended period of time. Pereira de Melo et al (2014) argue that ethnographic researchers should spend at least six months in the research setting and describe this as one of the main limitations when planning ethnographic research. For student researchers, especially those below doctoral level, they describe time as ‘an enemy’ because the students have tight and immoveable deadlines. While students can adopt ethnographic approaches, time restrictions can have an impact on the theoretical maturity of a project. The result is that students are often advised to avoid ethnographic approaches. Offering such advice fails to recognise that the primary objective of much student research is to allow the students to learn more about how to plan and conduct research rather than on the outcome of the research. A prolonged period of engagement in the research setting requires that ethnographic researchers give some detailed consideration to their role in the research process. The researcher is the main data collection instrument in an ethnographic research project so it is inevitable that the individual will Complexities of ethnography