Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:An Overview of the Culture of Health Care
Lecture:Learning more about the culture of health care
Slide content:Ethnography Ethnography: Anthropologists description of what life is like in a local world, a specific setting in a societyusually different from that of the anthropologist Ethnographer visits a foreign place, learns the language, and, systematically, describes social patterns in a particular village, neighborhood, or network Great importance placed on understanding the natives point of view Ethnography emphasizes engagement with people and with the practices they undertake in their local worlds 7
Slide notes:Now well turn our attention to ethnography. Ethnography [eth- nawg - ruh -fee] is the anthropologist's practice and description of what life is like in any local world or a specific setting in a specific society, usually one different from that of the anthropologist. Typically, an ethnographer [eth- nawg - ruh -fur] visits a foreign place, learns the language, and systematically describes the social patterns in a particular village, neighborhood, or network. Critical to this work is the great importance placed on understanding the natives' point of view, understanding how the behaviors, practices, and language make sense to the natives themselves, as opposed to what they mean to the outsider doing the observation. Ethnography [eth- nawg - ruh -fee] emphasizes engagement with people and with the practices they undertake in their local worlds. To understand the culture or cultures of health care, we can adopt the approach of an ethnographer trying to understand language, behaviors, and practices in terms of what they mean to the nativesin this case, the nurses, doctors, therapists, clinic managers, and others who make up a modern complex health care system. 7