Morse (2010) asked: “How different is qualitative health research from qualitative research? Do we have a subdiscipline?” (p. 1459). Her answer was yes. Morse (2012) defined qualitative health research “as a research approach to exploring health and illness as they are perceived by the people themselves, rather than from the researcher’s perspective” (p. 21). Morse argued that the context, the participants in the research, and the nature of the research questions investigated in qualitative health research are distinct. She made the case (p. 1463) that researchers who conduct qualitative health research required special skills and qualifications as “insiders”:
• Health professionals are “street smart,” knowing the rules, regulations, and norms for working in a hospital or other health care contexts. • Health professionals, with some working knowledge of the patient population, can recognize appropriate research questions. • Because of their knowledge of the signs of fatigue and experience with illness, health professionals can monitor their patient participants throughout data collection. • From their completed projects, health professionals can more readily make realistic recommendations for practice.