Qualitative Health Research: Creating a New Discipline

The leading figure in qualitative health research (QHR), Janice M. Morse, asserts that QHR is its own separate discipline--distinct from both traditional health research and other kinds of qualitative research--and examines the implications of this position for theory, research, and practice. She contends that the health care environments transform many of the traditional norms of qualitative research and shape a new and different kind of research tradition. Similarly, the humanizing ethos of qualitative health research has much to teach traditional researchers and practitioners in health disciplines. She explores how the discipline of QHR can play out in practice, both in the clinic and in the classroom, in North America and around the world. A challenging, thought-provoking call to rethink how to conduct qualitative research in health settings.

Janice M. Morse holds the Barnes Presidential Endowed Chair in the College of Nursing at University of Utah. Trained as an anthropologist, she founded and is former director of the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology at University of Alberta, where she taught for many years. She is author or editor of numerous volumes on qualitative research in health care and nursing. Morse founded and edits the journal Qualitative Health Research and edits two book series for Left Coast, Developing Qualitative Inquiry and Qualitative Essentials.