What constitutes qualitative evidence? This book breaks new ground by providing urgently needed standards for qualitative inquiry and addresses the significant issues of what constitutes qualitative evidence. In particular, this book will address the place of qualitative evidence in the planning delivery, and evaluation of health care. The authors first examine the status of qualitative research as evidence versus "opinion." They then examine such topics as: who decides what counts as evidence, the nature of outcomes, how to evaluate qualitative evidence, constructing evidence within the qualitative project, and research utilization and qualitative research. They conclude with perspectives on the issue of standards for qualitative investigation.

"The writing is scholarly and the content is rich, varied, and liberally seasoned with practical examples to illustrate situations in which open enquiry has generated important qualitative evidence." -- Michael Obrecht * The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation *

Janice M. Morse, PhD (Nurs), PhD (Anthro), FAAN is a professor and Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Utah College of Nursing, and Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta, Canada., from 1991-1996, she also held a position as professor at The Pennsylvania State University. From 1997-2007, she was the founding Director and Scientific Director of the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, University of Alberta, founding editor for the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, and Editor of the Qual Press monograph series. She remains the founding editor for Qualitative Health Research, (now in Volume 2, Sage1), is currently editor for the monograph series Developing Qualitative Inquiry, and The Essentials of Qualitative Inquiry (Left Coast Press). Her research programs are in the areas of suffering and comforting, preventing patient falls, and developing qualitative methods. In 2011, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Qualitative Inquiry from the International Center for Qualitative Inquiry, was an inaugural inductee into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame (2010), the 5th recipient of the Episteme Award (also Sigma Theta Tau). She received awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Newcastle (Australia) and Athabasca University (Canada). She is the author of 460 articles and chapters and 19 books on qualitative research methods, suffering, comforting and patient falls.