ETHNOGRAPHIC AND OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH IN THE HEALTHCARE SERVICES: CREATING POLICIES IN DEMENTIA CARE

Patient-centered care is becoming one of the primary targets in treating people with dementia. The current study aims to explore some of the advantages of conducting ethnographic observational research to investigate staff behaviors in clinical settings treating patients with dementia. Furthermore, one of the significant motors of quality of care for dementia is a successful partnership in multidisciplinary teams and teamwork. However, to create policy paper to regulate group skills and behaviors, standard interviews and quantitative research might not help in discovering target manners, attitudes, and skills especially if there are strict regulations that penalize professional negligence. The same applies for capturing personal accounts on behaviors by using standard interviews. In this case, the actor of targeted actions and skills might not like to disclose personal errors for fear of retaliation. Hence, ethnographic research by a participant observer might be the only viable option in capturing teamwork and organizational behaviors in dementia care. The writer works in dementia wards in a clinical role, therefore, by regular participation into wards and clinical activities he was able to outline the required policies and principles regarding behaviors in patient-centered care.