[Etnography as an Integrative Method]

Ethnography is understood from three perspectives: approach, methodology and text. In the health field, ethnography can be used not only from the standpoint of the research process, but also from the very instances of medical consultation, diagnose and treatment. The pacient appreciates the fact of being heard and understood as a subject who has her/his own story and is involved in a particular culture related to her/his own status and to the effectsa caused by life experiences.

Analysis of the literature related to ethnography, participanting observation and an relationship between health and qualitative research.

There is a diversity of opinions and attitudes about ethnography, its validity and usefulness as well as in considerations related to its method and the techniques that nourish it. Ethnography is an integrative approach that may resorty to multiple tools for collecting, analyzing and interpreting the data. Therefore, ethnography constitutes an option for the physician when performing individual assessment.

Ethnography provides an opportunity to approach the reality of an individual or group of individuals in order to obtain information about the matter under investigation, its understanding and interpretation.