Sandra Thomas is Professor and Director of the PhD program in Nursing at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her clinical specialization is psychiatric-mental health nursing and her practice and research have primarily focused on women's stress, anger, depression, and health-promoting behaviors. She conducted the first large-scale, comprehensive study of women's anger. Cross-cultural studies of women's anger have been conducted in France and Turkey. She served as co-investigator of a large federally funded study of women survivors of childhood abuse who are thriving in adulthood (PI Joanne Hall). She has a special interest in using existential phenomenology to study women's lived experience. This research method is elucidated in her textbook, coauthored with Howard Pollio, "Listening to Patients" (Springer Publishing, New York, 2002). Recently she has studied the peer review process of scholarly journals, an interest generated by her years of editing "Issues in Mental Health Nursing." She has started a mentoring program for doctoral students who want to learn how to review manuscripts. She is the author of more than 130 journal articles, books, and book chapters. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.
Women's Anger, Aggression, and Violence
Junior Nursing Students' Experiences of Vertical Violence During Clinical Rotations (with Renee Burk), Journal of Professional Nursing (2009)
phenomenology
Merleau-Ponty and James Agee: Guides to the Novice Phenomenologist, Phenomenology 2010, Volume 5. Selected Essays from North America (2010)
In Press
Relationships among stress, infectious illness, and religiousness/spirituality in community dwelling elderly (with B.L. Callen, L. Mefford, and M. Groer), Research in Gerontological Nursing (2010)
Refereed Journal Articles
Authors' and editors' perspectives on peer review quality in three scholarly nursing journals (with M.M. Shattell, P. Chinn, and W.R. Cowling), Journal of Nursing Scholarship (2010)
This study examined the quality of peer review in three scholarly nursing journals from the...
Lived experience of diabetes among older, rural people (with S.R. George), Journal of Advanced Nursing (2010)
This paper is a report of a study conducted to elucidate experiences and perceptions of...
Junior nursing students' experiences of vertical violence during clinical rotations (with R. Burk), Nursing Outlook (2009)
Horizontal violence is a form of workplace violence, a phenomenon that is prevalent in the...
Mental health patients' experiences of being misunderstood (with L.M. Gaillard and M.M. Shattell), Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (2009)
Mental health patients describe “being understood” as an experience that evokes feelings of importance, worthiness,...
Thriving as becoming resolute in narratives of women surviving childhood maltreatment (with J.M. Hall, M. Roman, C.B. Travis, J. Powell, C.R. Tennison, K. Moyers, D.H. Shoffner, K.M. Bolton, T. Broyles, T. Martin, and P.M. McArthur), American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (2009)
The purpose of this feminist interpretive study was to portray the experience of women thriving...
Presentations
Books
Listening to Patients: A Phenomenological Approach to Nursing Research and Practice (with H.R. Pollio) (2002)
ERIC Document
Psychosocial predictors of women's physical health in middle adulthood, ERIC (1992)
Although health is a key element in one's experience of middle adulthood as a time...
Relationships among perceived stress, trait anger, modes of anger expression and health status of college men and women (with R.L. Williams), Resources in Education (1991)
Relationships among perceived stress, trait anger (general propensity to become angry), modes of anger expression,...
Anger symptomatology, stress reactivity, and health status of mid-life women, Resources in Education (1989)
This study examined psychological, behavioral, environmental, and sociodemographic predictors of health status in 87 mid-life...
Type B: Congnitive/attitudinal characteristics, stress reactivity, and health status, Resources in Education (1988)
Little is known about the Type B behavior pattern which is allegedly antithetical to the...
Predictors of health in middle adulthood, Resources in Education (1985)
There is increasing acceptance of the premise that growth and development continue throughout adult life...
Online Publications
Anger in nurses: Don't lose it, use it (with P.G. Droppleman), American Journal of Nursing (1996)
Book Chapters
Health and health promotion, Conceptual Foundations: The Bridge to Professional Nursing Practice (2007)
Testing a theory of decision making derived from King's systems framework in women eligible for a cancer clinical trial (with H.E. Ehrenberger, M.R. Alligood, D.C. Wallace, and C.M. Licavolia), Middle Range Theory Development Using King’s Conceptual System (2007)
Trait anger, anger expression, and themes of anger incidents in contemporary undergraduate students, Psychology of Anger (2007)
Cultural and gender considerations in assessment and treatment of anger-related disorders, Anger-related Disorders: A Practicioner’s Guide to Comparative Treaments (2006)