Sally Thorne, RN, PhD, FAAN, FCAHS, is a Professor and former Director of the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia, where she currently also holds the position of Associate Dean of Applied Science. She has a longstanding research program in the field of patient experience and relational practice in chronic illness and cancer care in addition to a body of scholarly work in the philosophy of science, the nature of evidence, and applied qualitative methodology. She is author of four books, including a popular qualitative research text on Interpretive Description. She has an extensive record of peer reviewed journal publications and has presented her work internationally as invited scholar, keynote lecturer and distinguished professor. She is Editor-in-Chief of the scholarly journal Nursing Inquiry and Associate Editor for Qualitative Health Research. She has served terms as Board Director for numerous organizations, including the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and the Association of Registered Nurses of British Columbia, and is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
The findings of a large qualitative research project which studied the experiences of the chronically ill within the health care system are presented here. Thorne demonstrates the vast difference between chronic and acute illness in terms of their social and health care consequences. The book is divided into three sections: the first examines how patients handle the onset of diseases and acute episodes; the second explores the relationship with health care providers; and the final part focuses on the 'system' with its sociocultural and organizational agenda. The concluding chapter proposes future directions for health care organization, biomedical technology and social policy.
