Critical ethnography

Abstract

Summary Critical ethnography is one of many research approaches which seek to depict and improve workplace care cultures by engaging in collaboration by stakeholders, and where the critical ethnographer works as a facilitator of practice development (PD). Critical ethnography can be used to improve healthcare quality, especially when it is used in close collaboration with stakeholders in the co-production of knowledge. A critical ethnographer will consciously diminish their power by playing the role of a democratic facilitator and consciousness-raiser working with differently positioned stakeholders. Two cases which illustrate the utility of critical ethnography as a PD tool are presented. These case studies are: communication practice change in a metropolitan Australian inpatient aged care setting, and changes in service delivery in a UK hospital. The embedded researcher, a group of hospital managers and a group of clinicians created a working group to redesign the outpatient booking system.