Marlot Kuiper

96 Connective Routines examine the research problem in a different context. (Marcus, 1995) argued that multi-sited ethnography fits if the social phenomenon under study cannot be understood by focusing on a single site. The essence of multi-sited research is to follow people and connections across sites, because they are substantially continuous but spatially non-contiguous (ibid; Falzon, 2012). In conducting ethnographic fieldwork at two research sites, I had to balance the aim to deeply getting to know the research sites, and the aim to research the issue in different contexts. Two research sites seemed feasible in gaining both an in- depth understanding of the research problem and examine the issue in different contexts in the research time available for the project. The aim of studying the research topic in an additional research setting was not close comparison. Rather I was looking for connections, associations, and relationships across space, to give the analysis some more depth. The selection of the two research sites resulted from an extensive consideration of both substantive and pragmatic reasons. The research sites have some important similarities, but also differ in various respects. Needless to say, I did not select the research sites based on how (well) they work with the Surgical Safety Checklist; since this this is an explicit focus of the empirical study, and as I claimed, using (self-) registration data would lead to a biased selection of research sites. First of all, both hospitals are situated in the same geographical area. This also means that they are part of the same ‘educational area’; residents conduct parts of their training at both institutes. This implies that some of the respondents have been talked to at both research sites, which enabled them to share ideas on similarities and differences. Plainsboro Teaching Hospital 8 is a large academic hospital. The surgery department consists of a new inpatient clinic with 18 operating theatres and an outpatient clinic with 14 operating theatres. St. Sebastian’s hospital is a so called top clinical institute 9 . The surgery department consists of 10 operating theatres. Both hospitals are engaged in complex surgical 8 In this dissertation, I use fictive names for both research sites for the purpose of anonymity. Plainsboro Teaching Hospital is a fictive hospital in the award winning television show House M.D. St. Sebastian’s hospital is the decor of television shows like House M.D., Lost, and Criminal Minds. 9 St. Sebastian’s is one of the 26 so-called ‘top-clinical institutes’ [top klinische ziekenhuizen] in the Netherlands. These top clinical institutes perform complex interventions, and are usually specialized into one or more care areas. Top clinical institutes deliver services to patients from the wider environment. Besides care delivery, top clinical institutes are engaged in (innovative) research projects and are responsible for educating physicians.