Page 195 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

162 n ETHNOGRAPHY

elements and their interrelated functioning investigator’s immersion in the target com-
in a culture. Prominent functionalist ethnog- munity for long periods of time to gain
E raphies in nursing include studies guided understanding for contextualizing the ethno-
by Leininger’s Culture Care Theory and its graphic data gathered about a cultural group.
attendant Sunrise Model. The stages of fieldwork include (a) field entry,
The goal of ethnoscience, a third ethno- (b) development of relationships, (c) data col-
graphic tradition, is to discover folk systems lection, (d) data manipulation, (e) data analy-
of classification to determine the ways peo- sis, and (f) departure. Many fieldwork stages
ple perceive and structure their thinking (particularly items b–e) overlap in time, thus
about their world and to identify the rules allowing for iterative relationship building,
that guide decision making. The taxonomy data gathering, and interpretation.
of nursing activities known as the Nursing in conducting fieldwork, an investigator
Interventions Classification was derived using may use multiple data collection strategies
an ethnoscience approach. Through such including participant observation, informal
strategies as cognitive interviews and pile interviews, structured interviews, photo-
sorts, researchers identified how clinical graphs and videotapes, material artifacts,
nurses conceptualized their work-related census and other statistical data, historical
tasks and patient care responsibilities. documents, projective tests, and psychoso-
Symbolic or interpretive ethnography is cial surveys. The variety of research strate-
a fourth approach that is growing in appli- gies that are appropriately used is another
cation in nursing. Here, culture is viewed as way in which ethnography differs from most
a system of shared meanings and symbols. other naturalistic methods. Further, ethnog-
Ethnographers working within this tradition raphers may use quantitative data to aug-
such as Geertz, Turner, and Douglas believe ment qualitative data. However, the mainstay
that cultural knowledge is embedded in “thick strategies of ethnography rest in participant
descriptions” of human behavior. Cultural observation and informant interviews. if the
members are interviewed to provide a social focus of the ethnography concerns the cogni-
context for observed actions and to interpret tive realm (attitudes, beliefs, schemata) of the
cultural symbols and relevant motifs. Nursing members of the culture, then interviewing is
research on explanatory models of illness and the primary strategy. On the other hand, if
health or on the meaning of the body often the focus of the ethnography involves struc-
is based within the symbolic or interpretive tural features or patterns of behavior, then
ethnographic tradition. observations are the primary strategy. The
institutional ethnography was intro- majority of ethnographies, however, use a
duced by Smith to investigate the social orga- combination of strategies.
nization of everyday life. As communication Data manipulation methods include field
and information media have assumed dom- notes and memo systems, coding strategies,
inant positions in human interactions, insti- and indexing systems. Recently, computer-
tutional ethnographers use their method to ized software programs such as NVivo and
map how texts, technologies, and informa- ATLAS.ti have aided in the management of
tion flows coordinate social relations and data in ethnographic projects. Methods used
govern the daily activities of people within in data analysis include matrix, thematic,
institutions. institutional ethnographies have and domain analysis.
explored decision-making processes in long- in summary, ethnography is a naturalis-
term care and the role of patient satisfaction tic research method designed to describe the
discourse within health care reform. culture of a social group or organization. The
Fieldwork is the hallmark of ethno- ethnographer seeks to understand another
graphic research. Fieldwork involves the way of life from the perspective of a person