On February 26, 2007, the Center for Excellence in Chronic Illness Care will host its 9th Annual Convocation. Lesley Degner will deliver the keynote address: "Bringing evidence into practice: Can theory help in promoting knowledge uptake?"The event will take place at 4:00 p.m. at the Yale School of Nursing Lecture Hall, 100 Church Street South, New Haven. Excellence in Caring Awards acknowledging consistent excellence in promoting or delivering care for people with chronic illness and their families will also be presented. A reception will follow Dr. Degner's talk.
Dr. Degner is an internationally recognized scholar and researcher in patient involvement in medical decision making. During her career on the Faculty of Nursing, Dr. Degner was instrumental in the development and implementation of new cancer control programs and strategies, and she has shown outstanding commitment to graduate training in cancer research.
A graduate of the Universities of Manitoba, Washington, and Michigan, Dr. Degner joined the University of Manitoba in 1973. She currently holds a 10 year National Research Chair from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, to support her program entitled, "Development of Evidence-Based Nursing Practice in Cancer Care, Palliative Care and Cancer Prevention."
In 1987, Dr. Degner published, Life-Death Decisions in Health Care, a groundbreaking book outlining the factors that influence the way treatment decisions are made for patients with life-threatening illnesses. The theory described in this book formed the basis of Dr. Degner's subsequent development of the Control Preferences Scale and the Information Needs Scale, measurement tools which are now used by investigators internationally.
Dr. Degner's research into informational needs, decision making preferences and the meaning of illness in women with breast cancer also included comparative studies in England and Sweden. In a paper published in Cancer Nursing in 2003, she described a new way of measuring how women with breast cancer derive meaning from their experiences. This paper won the Research Article of the Year Award, and the model it describes is an important new tool for clinicians communicating with breast cancer patients.
Dr. Degner has dedicated her career to advancing oncology nursing, including the supervision of more than 50 graduate students, and the establishment of the Cancer Nursing Research Group at the St. Boniface General Hospital Research Centre. In 2004, Dr. Degner initiated a PhD program in cancer control that brings together the faculties of Nursing and Medicine to provide doctoral training in oncology nursing that is unparalleled in Canada.
In October 2005, Dr. Degner was awarded the Dr. John M. Bowman Memorial Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation Medal which recognizes research accomplishments of senior faculty according to the quality of their research, the impact of the research nationally and internationally, and the distinction brought to the university by the research. She is the first Nurse and the first woman at the University of Manitoba to be awarded this medal.
In May, 2006, Dr. Degner received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the Oncology Nursing Society in the US. The honor recognizes her outstanding research accomplishments that have enhanced the science and practice of oncology nursing. Dr. Degner is the first non-US citizen to receive this award.
In September of 2006, Dr. Degner was inducted as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and received the Distinguished Merit Award for services to cancer nursing from the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care.
For more information about the Center for Excellence in Chronic Illness Care click here.
