Negotiated interactive observation: Doing fieldwork in hospital settings

In this paper I discuss the possibilities and limitations of the ethnographer participating in the different on-going activities and events in highly specialised healthcare systems. The concept of participant observation is based on a number of assumptions, particularly that the ethnographer will become one of 'them' to be able to follow the steps belonging to the accepted ethnographic research practice of doing fieldwork. The character of fieldwork in highly specialised healthcare systems does not fit well with this assumption. I suggest that we need to rethink the concept of participant observation and I propose negotiated interactive observation as a more appropriate way to describe ethnographic fieldwork in a setting such as the hospital or the clinic.