The Koala has Claws: Applications of the Shifting Perspectives Model in Research of Chronic Illness

Abstract

The Shifting Perspectives Model of Chronic Illness was recently developed in the metasynthesis of more than 250 qualitative research reports about chronic illness. The model proposes that people with chronic illness view living with their disease in accordance with how much wellness or illness is in the foreground of their experience. It also identifies a number of circumstances and situations that can prompt a shift from wellness or illness in the foreground to wellness or illness in the background. One such situation is being interviewed or observed as a participant in research about the experience of living with a chronic disease. The author reviews the model, providing excerpts from an interview with a key informant with a chronic illness to substantiate the model and to identify a number of implications of the model for researchers. She highlights some of the difficulties and limitations encountered when researchers attempt to define the experience of living with chronic illness through the lens of a single perspective.