Ethnography for Healthcare Improvement Summer School

Description:

A short course designed for researchers and doctoral students to critically engage with the theory and practice of ethnography in healthcare settings.

You will be taught by staff from SAPPHIRE, University of Leicester, who have an international reputation for expertise in using ethnographic methods in healthcare and improvement research

8-10 July, 2026, at the Clubhouse, Leicester Tigers Rugby Club, Aylestone Road Leicester.

 

 

Detailed Description

The three day course (18 hrs) will employ a variety of lectures, workshops, group work and student presentations.

The course will cover the following:

·         Ethnography in and of healthcare, managing tensions in improvement and evaluation

·         Use, variation and value associated with the ethnographic label, including non-traditional, digital, visual and remote approaches

·         The roles and positions of the ethnographer in healthcare ‘fields’

·         Critical appraisal of ethnographic contributions to healthcare improvement

·         Cross-cultural variation, comparative studies of healthcare using ethnographic methods –

·         sensitivity to local context, time, place and complexity

·         Designing and conducting ethnographic research in healthcare improvement; tips from the field, the importance of reflexivity and ethical conduct inside and outside healthcare settings

·         Analysis of ethnographic data

·         Ethnographic writing and publication, influencing policy and practice

 

By the end of the course the student will be able to:

·         identify scope and practical application of ethnography for healthcare improvement

·         identify sociological / anthropological origins of ethnography and key philosophical concepts involved with using ethnography for healthcare improvement

·         outline approaches to recording field notes, interviews, and debriefs, and to managing data

·         describe approaches to the analysis of ethnographic data

·         consider the challenges and benefits of team working in ethnographic studies

·         discuss challenges in gaining ethical approval, access to sites, data collection in healthcare settings (particularly around securing consent), exiting the field and writing up for publication

·         understand ways to generate theoretically informed insights ‘telling cases’ with implications for healthcare improvement

·         consider methods of ethnographic writing, and ways of disseminating findings to different

·         audiences using different media

·         link with other researchers and doctoral students to share good practice and foster

·         development of an ‘ethnography in healthcare improvement’ community of practice

Cost:

£1000 (inc VAT)

Website and registration:

Register for this course

Region:

East Midlands

Keywords:

Unstructured/ ethnographic observation, Participant observation , Non-participant observation, Ethnography

Related publications and presentations from our eprints archive:

Unstructured/ ethnographic observation
Participant observation
Non-participant observation
Ethnography

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