Ethnographic Data Generation in a Mental Health Setting: The Role of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurses

Psychiatric and mental health nurses work with clients suffering from various mental health problems with complex needs. This article discusses focused ethnography as a tool to develop mental health care: careful planning of the field work, incorporating several data sets, data generation within a reflective stance and changing the researcher's role intentionally during the field study. An open and participatory role is suggested to make discoveries. The lifeworld method requires scrutinizing and further discussion on the benefit to mental health care. Psychiatric and mental health nurses can use their professional expertise in the process.