TY - JOUR AU - Lusardi, Roberto PY - 2015/04/26 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Ethnography of "Local Universality": Admission Practices in an Intensive Care Unit Among Guidelines, Routines, and Humour JF - Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research JA - FQS VL - 16 IS - 2 SE - Single Contributions DO - 10.17169/fqs-16.2.2234 UR - https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/2234 SP - AB - <p>The article analyses the existing gap between the formal dimension of evidence-based medicine (EBM), as constituted by protocols, procedures, and guidelines, and actual professional practices in relation to a specific issue: the admission of patients to an intensive care unit (ICU). The results of a case study, carried out in the ICU of a hospital in the north of Italy between 2006 and 2007 are reported. The study was performed using ethnographic methods: participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and semi-structured interviews. Empirical data have been analysed using a grounded theory approach. The results show how three dimensions (macrosocial, organisational-interactional, and individual) become intertwined with the operational guidelines that have been drafted on the basis of international evidence. The standardisation process that the guidelines presuppose results in the adoption of a variety of different <em>local styles</em> with respect to the approach that individual doctors take in relation to the admission of a patient to an ICU. These styles can range from strict adherence to the international criteria to a greater compliance with medical–legal, organisational, and individual needs. Furthermore, the results of the study demonstrate how <em>relational knowledge</em>, as a form of <em>situated knowledge</em>, can allow the personnel involved to activate local resources (organisational, professional, and personal) in order to incorporate the formal prescriptions of EBM in professional practice.</p><p>URN: <a href="http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1502261">http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1502261</a></p> ER -