Witnessing the Ward: On the Emotional Labor of Doing Hospital Ethnography

Abstract

This paper examines the emotional labor performed by researchers when undertaking ethnographic research in hospitals. Drawing on emotion work theory to situate emotions at the center of qualitative and interdisciplinary research, I provide a methodological reflection based on a 20-week long ethnography at a Canadian pediatric hospital I conducted in the context of a research project examining risk communication of antimicrobial resistance. I argue that the emotional labor in which hospital ethnographers engage starts long before the fieldwork and carries on throughout the project and into the data analysis and writing of results. I divide these instances of emotional labor into four categories: gaining and maintaining access to the field site, resolving ethical concerns, managing relations with participants, and witnessing human suffering. This paper addresses a gap in the literature regarding the various barriers that hospital ethnographers encounter as I reflect upon the challenges I faced and the emotional labor I intuitively engaged in and provide advice for researchers on how to navigate these barriers.