Ethnomethodology. I: An approach to nursing research

This is the first of two papers outlining and demonstrating an ethnomethodological perspective upon nursing research. The aim of this paper is to introduce the reader to some of the basic ideas of ethnomethodology, and to stimulate nursing researchers into questioning some of the presuppositions involved in their work. To this end ethnomethodology is explored through a series of contrasts between the conventional approach to the sociology of nursing and an ethnomethodological approach. To conclude, some of the areas of interest for ethnomethodological nursing research are outlined.