What can ethnographic research contribute to our understanding of palliative care in institutional settings? In this podcast, medical anthropologists Dr Marian Krawczyk and Dr Shahaduz Zaman compare their experiences of undertaking hospital ethnographies in Western Canada and in Bangladesh.
They talk about the challenges and strengths of ethnography, and discuss the ethical issues of undertaking research with dying patients, and the difficulties of gathering informed consent.
We recorded this podcast during Marian’s visit to the University of Glasgow’s Dumfries Campus in 2016, when Marian presented her PhD research to the Glasgow End of Life Studies Group.
Marian Krawczyk is a postdoctorate researcher at the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences at Providence Health in Vancouver, Canada. She specialises in ethics, medical anthropology and general practice.
Shahaduz Zaman is a medical anthropologist and expert in global health. He is a Research Fellow in our Global Interventions at the End of Life project, which is led by the University of Glasgow and funded by the Wellcome Trust.