Her professional and research education spans degrees in New Zealand, Alberta, and California. Her career has included varied experience nurse, nurse educator, and researcher. Her primary research interests include exploring the experiences of those living with chronic and hidden illness, and how this experience influences the nature of health professional-patient interaction/communication. She is very interested in video as a research tool and has used it to explore home care nurse-client interaction, teenagers' and their parents' experiences of living with diabetes and the nature of the interactions in the health care setting.