Is peer-ethnography a useful tool for postgraduate medical education research? An analysis of the literature and experience sharing

Abstract

Trainees undergoing graduate medical education learn in a complex setting where there is a significant disparity between trainee and supervisor in a highly charged environment. Research questions such as ‘How is supervisor feedback interpreted by trainees’ or ‘ What cultural barriers do clinical trainees encounter when learning on the wards’ can be difficult to investigate through commonly employed research designs. Peer ethnography offers a new methodological route to explore such questions in difficult to penetrate populations, through training members of the study population as ethnographers to undertake fieldwork. We present a review of the current literature in this emerging technique and highlight the potential roles, advantages and limitations that peer ethnographic studies could have in graduate medical education research. We also share our experience of conducting pilot study in peer ethnography at the University of Hong Kong to demonstrate how medical educators can implement studies using this methodology.