Research
As a scholar, I am motivated by issues of health, illness, and healing. This is reflected in my research which focuses on both the causes and consequences of health and illness and the providers and organizations through which healthcare is administered. Within this framework, my interests are primarily rooted and theoretically engaged in the areas of medical sociology, sociology of mental health and illness, as well as the intersection of these traditions with the sociology of work and organizations.
Healthcare Providers and Healthcare Organizations
My research on healthcare providers and healthcare organizations primarily focuses on the experience of contemporary healthcare workers and professionals, including studies of the well-being, daily work practices, local organizational norms, physical work environment, social status, and interactions.
My article “Isolation or Interaction: Healthcare Provider Experience of Design Change” was awarded the Mildred Blaxter New Writer's Prize from Sociology of Health & Illness. This article focuses on the physical aspect of the design change as it impacted the daily work practices and local culture of providers. Altogether, I find that while providers actively worked to maintain their original local culture, their success in doing so was mediated by the built environment. Responding to the new space, practitioners developed new practices, some of which directly undermined the original organizational culture, while others worked to transpose the original culture into the new space.
VanHeuvelen, Jane S. 2019 “Isolation or Interaction: healthcare provider experience of design change” Sociology of Health and Illness. 41.4. 692-708
My research on healthcare providers and healthcare organizations has also been published in Social Science & Medicine, Work & Occupations, Society and Mental Health and, Professional Work: Knowledge, Power and Social Inequalities
Health Behaviors and Health Outcomes
In addition to assessing the providers and organizations involved in healthcare delivery, I am also engaged in research which assesses how individuals come to participate in different health behaviors and the association of health behaviors with health outcomes for different groups in different locations. My research on this topic includes publications in: International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Sociology of Development and Advances in Medical Sociology.