Janice M. Morse, RN, PhD, FAAN

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. She has also held positions as professor at the University of Alberta, Canada, and 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 of the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, and editor for the Qual Press monograph series. She presently serves as the founding editor of Qualitative Health Research (now in Volume 21), is the 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 (she is the author of the Morse Fall Scale, used internationally to triage the fall-prone patient), and developing qualitative methods. Morse was an inaugural inductee into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, was the 5th recipient of the Episteme Award (Sigma Theta Tau), and has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Newcastle (Australia) and Athabasca University (Canada). She is the author of 460 articles and book chapters and 21 books on qualitative research methods, suffering, comforting, and patient falls.

Research Statement

Educational: The majority, but not all, of Morse’s research uses her background in anthropology to study behavior using qualitative research methods. She has been instrumental in the development of methods, to clarify methods of concepts and theory development, and to communicate the value of qualitative inquiry. She is considered one of the “founders of mixed methods design.” She has taught qualitative methods in courses and international workshops for 3 decades, mentored postdoctoral students, and published extensively about qualitative inquiry. Her greatest contribution was the establishment of the International Institute of Qualitative Methodology (IIQM) in 1997 at the University of Alberta. In 10 years, this Institute linked, through 9 international sites, 115 universities, offered 2 international conferences/year in Qualitative Health Research and Advances in Qualitative Methods, workshop series, and provided pre- and post-doc training opportunities through EQUIPP (Enhancing qualitative understanding of the illness processes and prevention), a $1.6 Million CIHR training grant. During this time, the Qual Press published 8 monographs; the IJQM (International Journal of Qualitative Methods; an open access, multi-lingual, online journal) was established; and the IIQM supported think tanks and conducted research about and using qualitative inquiry. This work in the use of qualitative inquiry to humanize health care is, in 2011, being extended to the Global Congress for Qualitative Health Research, and launched at its first conference in Korea in June, 2011.

Selected Publications