Hospital Ethnography

Collaborating for Best Practices

Hospital ethnography is a particular practice of conducting research in clinical settings. Within these settings, the researcher often encounters a unique set of ethical and methodological challenges. Though this type of research is increasingly of interest to students, researchers, and scholars, the training and support to ensure best practices in this field remain dispersed and underdeveloped. Through collaboration with my students, both Ph.D. and advanced undergraduates, starting in a hospital ethnography seminar in spring 2021, we are working to build a living repository for tools, resources, and dialogue around best practices and particularly the methods and ethics of hospital ethnography. This project is motivated by my own work in health facility settings in Tanzania but will be of use and interest to those working in similar settings globally.