This ‘A Qualitative Space’ article takes a critical look at Dorothy Smith’s approach to inquiry known as institutional ethnography and its potentiality in contemporary health professions education research. We delve into institutional ethnography’s philosophical underpinnings, setting out the ontological shift that the researcher needs to make within this critical feminist approach. We use examples of research into frontline healthcare, into the health work of patients and into education to allow the reader to consider what an institutional ethnography research project might offer. We lay out our vision for potential growth for institutional ethnography research within the health professions education field and explain why we see this as the opportune moment to adopt institutional ethnography to meet some of the challenges facing health professions education in a way that offers informed change.
This article is based on an institutional ethnographic inquiry into the work of paramedics and the institutional setting that organizes and coordinates their work processes in a major City in Canada. Drawing on more than two hundred hours of observations and more than one hundred interviews with paramedics (average length of 18 minutes) and other emergency medical personnel, this article explores the standard and not so standard work of paramedics as they assess and care for their patients on the front lines of emergency health services. The multiplicity of interfacing social, demographic, locational, and situational factors that shape and organize the work of paramedics are analyzed. In doing so, this article provides insights into the complex work of an understudied yet ever-important profession in health care.
most research in the field of autism focuses on the medical and psychological characteristics of the disability. Research that focuses on caregiving emphasizes the stresses and pathological features associated with having a child with autism. As such, the more positive aspects of caregiving have been left in abeyance, portraying caregiving and autism as characterized by only negative experiences, prognoses, and outcomes. Based on mothers' reflections, this article reports on some of the positives of caregiving. The findings provide a glimpse into a seldom studied side of caregiving-events and experiences appraised by mothers in a positive and sometimes joyous light-and the impact they have on mothers' experiences. Furthermore, practical implications for social service professionals and families are discussed.
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