http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/321/7273/1400.pdf

Ethnography is a complex and contested activity drawing on a range of epistemological positions and methods and often demanding different modes of evaluation from other methods more commonly used in healthcare research. As a detailed way of witnessing human events in the context in which they occur, ethnography can help healthcare professionals to solve problems beyond the reach of many research approaches, particularly in the understanding of patients' and clinicians' worlds.