Table 2.
Characteristics of studies in review
| Method summary | |
| Focused ethnography | 25 |
| Thematic analysis | 21 |
| Grounded theory study | 15 |
| Case study | 13 |
| Mixed methods | 13 |
| Institutional ethnography | 12 |
| Critical ethnography | 12 |
| Content analysis | 8 |
| Constant comparison | 7 |
| Discourse analysis | 6 |
| Auto-ethnography | 2 |
| Other | 107 |
| Regiona | |
| Middle East | 5 |
| South America | 11 |
| Asia | 15 |
| Africa | 22 |
| Australasia | 33 |
| Europe (excl. UK) | 47 |
| UK | 74 |
| North America | 95 |
| Healthcare subject area | |
| Clinical communication | 3 |
| HIV-AIDS | 3 |
| Intensive Care Unit | 7 |
| Medication prescribing and management | 8 |
| Cancer | 10 |
| Paediatrics | 10 |
| Surgery and orthopaedics | 10 |
| Patient safety | 11 |
| Emergency medicine and acute care | 12 |
| Chronic illness | 12 |
| Family doctors, primary care and general practice | 12 |
| Nursing practice | 13 |
| Healthcare technology | 14 |
| Maternity care and reproductive medicine | 15 |
| Quality of care improvement and healthcare reform | 18 |
| Mental health and psychiatry | 19 |
| Dementia, care of the elderly, end of life care, palliative care | 20 |
| No info/other | 86 |
asome studies have been allocated to more than one region