![Jan Morse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Jan_Morse.jpg)
Janice Margaret Morse (née Hambleton, born 15 December 1945)in Blackburn, Lancs., UK to New Zealand parents. She is an anthropologist and nurse researcher who is best known as the founder and chief proponent of the field of qualitative health research. She has taught in the United States and Canada. She received PhDs in transcultural nursing and in anthropology at the University of Utah, where she later held the Ida May “Dotty” Barnes and D Keith Barnes Presidential Endowed Chair in the College of Nursing at University of Utah,.
[Janice Morse, University of Utah profile, https://faculty.utah.edu/u0556920-Janice_Morse_RN,_PhD,_FAAN/hm/index.hml] She is also an Emerita Distinguished Professor at the University of Utah and Professor Emerita at the University of Alberta. She is founder of three journals and created four scholarly book series on qualitative research. She was Founding Director of the International Institute of Qualitative Methodology at University of Alberta, the longest standing research institute on qualitative inquiry in the world.
Early life and education
Morse grew up in
Greymouth
Greymouth () (Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coas ...
, New Zealand in the South Island. Morse received her RN at Grey Hospital School of Nursing and practiced nursing at Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and Hutt Hospital in New Zealand before moving to the US. She received a BA in nursing and MA in transcultural nursing from
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...
. At the
University of Utah
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
, she was awarded an MA in physical anthropology in 1978, then simultaneous PhDs in anthropology (physical) and nursing (transcultural) in 1981.
Her two dissertations dealt with cultural coping mechanisms for reducing childbirth
pain
Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...
, and infant feeding and health of neonates among the people of
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
.
Professional career
Morse began her academic career at the
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...
, where she advanced from an associate professor and clinical researcher to full professor by 1986. In 1996, after a five-year stint as professor at Pennsylvania State University School of Nursing, she returned to University of Alberta, where she served as professor and launched the International Institute of Qualitative Methodology in the Faculty of Nursing in 1998. She was awarded emerita status at Alberta in 2007 when she moved to University of Utah. She was made a Distinguished Professor at University of Utah in 2019.
Qualitative health research
With a dual background in health care and in anthropology, Morse launched the field of qualitative health research, the practice of using
qualitative research methods
Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation. This ...
to study health care and health settings. Her major intellectual contributions in this area include developing theorical coalescence, criteria for rigor, and generalizability for qualitative studies. These topics challenged the long-standing tradition in health and medical fields, which focused on clinical trials and analysis of statistical data. She is also regarded as one of the founders of
mixed method research, insisting that mixed methods fully engage qualitative methodologies into the study.
Morse established the major professional and scholarly infrastructure items that support qualitative health research. In 1991, she convened the first international conference on the topic in Edmonton. After organizing three subsequent qualitative health research conferences, she launched the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology (IIQM) at University of Alberta. Morse founded the first journal in the field,
Qualitative Health Research
''Qualitative Health Research'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal that publishes papers in the field of public health. The editor-in-chief is Janice M. Morse (University of Utah). It was established in 1991 and is published by Sage Publications.
...
(Sage 1991) and has edited it since its inception. She retired as Editor-in-Chief in 2021. She also founded and served as Editor, two additional journals,
International Journal of Qualitative Methodology (2001), an open access digital publication that welcomed submissions in any language and provided translation services for them, and Global Qualitative Nursing Research (2014).
With her departure from Alberta for Utah in 2007, Morse launched an international organization, Global Congress for Qualitative Health Research, which hosts an annual international conferences.
International Institute of Qualitative Methodology
As founder, director, and later scientific director of the institute, Morse launched numerous initiatives to aid the development of qualitative methodology. IIQM ran two conferences and a week of workshops each year, attracting thousands of scholars from around the world. In addition to the journals, Qual Press was launched to publish original research and produced 11 volumes. It was later distributed by Left Coast Press and now by Routledge. Recognizing the importance of internationalizing the practice of qualitative research, Morse created a network of over 100 corresponding sites in 30 countries. Researchers from corresponding sites came as visiting scholars to Alberta to improve their research skills and Alberta researchers were sent around the world to help teach qualitative methodology in other countries.
Nursing research
Morse's main contribution in nursing research relates to understanding and controlling patient falls. With Robert Morse, she created the
Morse Fall Scale, a six-point scale to predict a patient's risk of falling. She identified methods of fall interventions, and the provision of safe care with the removal of patient restraints. Morse has also published extensively on patient comfort, nonpharmaceutical means of reducing patient suffering, menarche, breast feeding, nurse-patient interactions, and on broader issues of
transcultural nursing Transcultural nursing is how professional nursing interacts with the concept of culture. Based in anthropology and nursing, it is supported by nursing theory, research, and practice. It is a specific cognitive specialty in nursing that focuses on ...
. She developed nursing concepts and advanced methods of concept analysis. She developed mid-range theories in hope, suffering, comfort and comforting, and other clinical
nursing research Nursing research is research that provides evidence used to support nursing practices. Nursing, as an evidence-based area of practice, has been developing since the time of Florence Nightingale to the present day, where many nurses now work as resea ...
methods.
Publications and editorial roles
*''Nursing Research: The application of qualitative approaches'' (with P.A. Field) 1985, Aspen; 2nd ed, 1990, Chapman & Hall; 3rd edition, 1995, Sage; 4th edition, 2000, Nelson Thornes.
*''Qualitative Nursing Research: A Contemporary Dialogue'' (editor), 1989, Sage, winner of American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award
*''Critical Issues in Qualitative Research Methods'' (editor), 1994, Sage, winner of American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award.
*''Preventing Patient Falls'', 1997, Sage; 2nd edition, 2009, Springer
*''Qualitative health research'' (editor), 1992, Nelson Thornes; Sage, 1995
*''The illness experience: Dimensions of suffering'' (with J. Johnson), 1991, Sage
*''Developing Grounded Theory: The Second Generation'' (coedited), 2009, Left Coast/Routledge; 2nd edition 2021, Routledge.
*''Completing a Qualitative Project: Details and Dialogue'', 1997, Sage, selected as one of the best Health Science Books of 1997 by Doody's Rating Service
*''The nature of qualitative evidence'', (with J. Swanson & A. Kuzel). 2001, Sage
*''Readme First for a User’s Guide to Qualitative Methods'' (with L. Richards), 2002, Sage; 2nd edition, 2007; 3rd edition 2012
*''Mixed-Method Design: Principles and Procedures'' (with L. Niehaus), 2009 Left Coast/Routledge
*''Qualitative Health Research: Creating a New Discipline'', 2012, Left Coast/Routledge
*''Qualitatively-Driven Mixed-Method Designs'', 2017, Left Coast/Routledge; 2nd edition 2018, Routledge
*''Analyzing and Conceptualizing the Theoretical Foundations of Nursing'', 2017, Springer
Recognition
Morse has been given lifetime achievement awards from the International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry (2011) and the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology (2019). She received the Episteme Award, Sigma Theta Tau, 1997. She was an inaugural inductee of Sigma Theta Tau International's Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. She is a fellow of the
American Academy of Nursing
The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) is a professional organization that generates, synthesizes, and disseminates nursing knowledge to contribute to health policy and practice for the benefit of the public and the nursing profession. Founded in 1 ...
,
American Anthropological Association
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, ...
,
Society for Applied Anthropology
The Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) is a worldwide organization for the Applied Social Sciences, established "to promote the integration of anthropological perspectives and methods in solving human problems throughout the world; to advocate ...
, and
Canadian Academy of Health Sciences
The Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) is one of three national academies that comprise the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA), the highest honour granted to scholars in Canada. The two other CCA academies are the Royal Society of Canada ...
. Morse has honorary doctorates from University of Laval, Athabasca University (Canada) and University of Newcastle (Australia). She received the International Nursing Research Award from the American Nursing Association Council of Nurse Researcher in 1991.
Morse's citations were ranked, by AD Scientific Index 2023, in the top 2% of all scientists worldwide and ranked 2nd in the Nursing and Midwifery category in North America.
Further reading
*
Interview with Cesar Cisneros-Puebla* QHR Founding Editor Tribute Page - SAGE https://journals.sagepub.com/qhr/qhr-founding-editor-tribute-morse
* Porr, C. (2008). The scholarly work of Janice Morse: Synthesis and reflection. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 14(4), 265–272. doi:10.1111/j.1440-172X.2008.00692.x
* Foss, B., & Nåden, D. (2009). Janice Morse'Theory of Suffering—a Discussion in a Caring Science Perspective. Vård i Norden, 29(1), 14–18.
* Masson, V. (2008). The Science of Comforting. Nursing Education Perspectives, 29(2), 122. http://www.nln.org/nlnjournal/index.htm
* https://journals.sagepub.com/qhr/qhr-founding-editor-tribute-morse. Includes open access to Morse editorials.
* Bottorff, J.L. (1990). Comfort: Care + cure.
n interview with Janice Morse Aurora, 14 (3), 26–28. Available http://aurora.icaap.org/index.php/aurora/article/view/78/90 audio online: http://auspace.athabascau.ca:8080/dspace/bitstream/2149/1570/1/interview.mp3 May 8, 2008.
References
External links
* Jan's website: www.janicemmorse.com
* Jan's Sage landing page: https://journals.sagepub.com/qhr/qhr-founding-editor-tribute-morse?pbEditor=true
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morse, Janice M.
People from Greymouth
New Zealand emigrants to the United States
1945 births
Living people
People educated at Greymouth High School