Health within illness: conceptual evolution and practice possibilities

Health in terms of growth or change is being increasingly related to illness through health theory development and personal reports of illness. Clinicians in nursing often provide accounts of health within the experience of illness, and theorists in nursing incorporate health-within-illness ideas, but the concept has not been previously explicated for practice. Adoption of this perspective in current health care would initiate drastic changes and provide endless possibilities for a more positive, less judgmental attitude toward the experience of illness.