Clinical Ethnography

Clinical ethnography is a type of research that uses tools from anthropology (a type of social science) to look at how health care services are used and experienced by people. It looks at how patients, doctors, and other health professionals interact with each other and the environment of a health care setting. Ethnography tries to understand what it is like from the perspective of those involved, and it looks at both physical and emotional aspects of health care. For example, a clinical ethnography might look at how patients feel or think when they walk into a hospital or doctor's office, and how they communicate with their doctor or nurse. It also might look at what the doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff do and why they do it. It helps us learn how people use health care services, how they understand them, and how they cope with illness.