RHP&EO is the electronic journal of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education

An Ethnographic Approach To The Study Of Public Health Policy And Health Professions

Therese Andrews

Research Centre for Health Promotion, University of Bergen, Oisteinsgt. 3 5007 Bergen, Norway.

This methodological oriented paper will describe and discuss the qualitative approach in a study of Public health policy. In the study this policy is focused from the viewpoint of public health nurses.

The study- background and purpose

Public policy is not at best understood as made in legislatures or top-floor suites of high-ranking administrators. At the contrary, in important ways the policy is made in the crowded offices and daily encounters of street-level workers. Typical street-level workers or bureaucrats (SLB) are teachers, social workers and health workers. The decisions of SLBs, the routines they establish, and the devices they invent to cope with uncertainties and work pressures, effectively become the public policies they carry out. The individual decisions add up to agency policy. A way to increase our understanding of public policy therefore goes through a study of SLBs. In this project public health policy is studied. Since the public health nurses in Norway are typical street-level workers within the field of Health promotion, this profession is focused in the study.

Method

The goal in this study is to describe the work of public health nurses in detail and explain the patterns that exist. The study is therefore mainly based on qualitative interviews. More specifically I am using a modified ethnographic approach. In the present paper the approach will be discussed within broader perspectives of philosophy of science. The main purpose of ethnography is to learn from people rather than studying people, and the essential core is to understand what is going on from the actor's point of view. In the interviews both descriptive and structural questions are being asked. Data will be collected from 35-45 informants from different municipalities in Norway.

Internet Explorer 5.0 or later version gives the optimal visual effect of this website.