The purpose of this article, which was a keynote presentation at the Qualitative Health Research Conference (QHR 2000) in Banff, Canada, is to provide a historical perspective of qualitative research in nursing over the past 20 years. Van Gennep’s model of rites of passage is used as a heuristic. A discussion of the stages of stopping, waiting, transition, and entry is followed by speculation about the key characteristics necessary for qualitative research to be valued and valuable in the future.
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