Nurse Navigator and Quality of Life Research

Use of the term "quality of life" invokes a number of reactions that are potentially damaging for scientists and clinicians involved in the delivery and evaluation of health care. These potential risks can escalate to unacceptable levels when associated with the promotion of new therapies. Both the lay public and health care professionals automatically accord status to the concept of "quality of life" that goes well beyond any comprehension that they might have of its definition. In fact precisely because the meaning is left unspecified it has a malleable property that renders it simultaneously valued by all and fully understood by none. (Paul Kind 2001).