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Nursing Science Quarterly
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Definitions of Health Among Healthcare Providers

Kell Julliard, MA

Research Program Director, Lutheran Medical Center, Associate Professor, Department of Family Practice, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York

Elena Klimenko, MD

Principal Investigator, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, Fellow, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York

Mary S. Jacob, MBBS

Clinical Research Associate, Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York

Providers’ definitions of health may affect the kind of care they provide. This study examined healthcare practitioners’ definitions of health across practitioner types. Interviews with 73 healthcare practitioners were analyzed for themes. Most practitioners identified health as the interrelatedness of several factors. Physical, mental, and spiritual factors all played important roles. Mainstream and integrative practitioners emphasized health as good functioning, absence of disease, and chronic disease under control. Integrative and alternative practitioners emphasized health as balance and as the free flow of elements such as motion and energy. All types of practitioners freely combined elements from models of health described as separate in the literature. Understanding providers’ definitions of health could enhance communication among them.

Key Words: attitude of health personnel • health • qualitative research • theoretical models

Nursing Science Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 3, 265-271 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0894318406289575
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