Using fieldwork in analyzing ethical issues related to IT in health care

This paper describes how an understanding of everyday conflicts that have ethical implications - what we call 'situated ethics'- can be explored through ethnographic field techniques in healthcare settings. Our approach to ethics is followed by findings from two ethnographic case studies focussing on issues arising as information technologies such as electronic patient records and automatic drug dispensing machines are introduced into varied health sector workplaces. By close and careful observation of these technologies in use and by incorporating narrative accounts from different perspectives the complexity and entangledness of real life occurrences are revealed. Our data suggest that several types of ethical issues (e.g., issues related to intellectual property, literacy, standardization, transparency, work ethics, and equitable allocation of resources) can be identified through fieldwork, and can have an impact on identification of everyday ethics in healthcare.