Purpose
To promote and support research focused on palliative and end‐of‐life care. Our membership includes nurses with a broad range of research experience, from tenured professors who are established researchers with experience in securing grant funding and methodological expertise, to practitioners with clinical expertise related to end-of-life research, and nursing students whose passion lies in this area. This broad range of experience is useful in networking and sharing ideas regarding both theoretical and practical concerns in end-of-life research.
Who Should Join?
We welcome your participation in the Palliative and End-of-Life Care RIIG. We are looking forward to meeting everyone who is interested in research and translational science regarding end-of-life issues, from symptom management and comfort care during life-threatening illness, to caregiver issues, and to grief management for the bereaved.
RIIG Communication
Groupsite Community Networking Platform: https://mnrs.groupsite.com/
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Meet the RIIG Leadership
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Co-ChairNasreen Lalani, PhD, MScN, RN |
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Co-ChairJustina Yevu-Johnson, RN |
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Co-Chair-ElectSarah Mollman, PhD, CHPN, RN |
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Co-Chair-ElectKristen Abbott-Anderson, PhD, RN |
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Past Chair
Nadeen Al-Shakhshir, MSN, BSN, RN |
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Grant RepresentativeRenee Kumpula, EdD, MN, RN, PHN |
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RIIG Newsletter/Email
Oct/Nov 2020 Newsletter
August/September 2020 Newsletter
June/July 2020 Newsletter
February 2020 Newsletter
January 2020 Newsletter
December 2019 Newsletter
November 2019 Newsletter
October 2019 Newsletter
September 2019 Newsletter
June 2019 Newsletter
April 2019 Updates from the MNRS Conference
February 2019 Newsletter
January 2019 Newsletter
December 2018 Newsletter
November 26, 2018 Newsletter
November 7, 2018 Newsletter
October 2018 Newsletter
August 2018 Newsletter
July 2018 Newsletter
June 2018 Updates
May 2018 Updates
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2021-2022 RIIG Award Winners
The Palliative & End-of-Life Care RIIG is proud to announce the following award opportunities to the RIIG membership:
- Distinguished Career Award
- Mid-Career Award
- Outstanding Publications Award
- Dissertation Award
- DNP Project Award
- Early Career Award
- Graduate Student Award
- Undergraduate Student Award
Nominations are now closed and award recipients will be announced at the 2022 Annual Research Conference outside the Chicago area in Schaumburg, IL. If you have questions regarding the RIIG Awards, please be sure to email the RIIG Chair or contact the Executive Office at 615-432-0098 or info@mnrs.org
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2018-2019 RIIG Awards
Dr. Renee Kumpula, Chair (right) with 2019 MNRS PEOLC RIIG Award winners:
Dr. Rebecca Lehto, Mid-career Investigator Award
Dr. Christine Fortney, New Investigator Award
Dr. Mandi Kirkpatrick, Dissertation Award
Dr. Jessica Spruit, DNP Project Award
2017-2018 RIIG Awards
Dr. Christine Fortney, Chair (left) with 2018 MNRS PEOLC RIIG Award winners:
Dr. Stephanie Gilbertson-White, New Investigator Award
Dr. Stacey Crane, Dissertation Award
Dr. Verna Hendricks-Ferguson, Distinguished Research Award
2016-2017 RIIG Awards
Dr. Cynthia Bell, Best Manuscript Award
2015-2016 RIIG Awards
Dr. Dana Hansen, New Investigator Award
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RIIG Member Publications
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Annual Goals
1) Increase awareness and visibility of the PEOLC RIIG and member contributions
2) Utilize website to increase interest and connect with membership
3) Increase active membership /new members and member publications
- Know our members: Update our membership database (during leadership team transition, before RIIG awards, and before conference)
- Consult our members: Gather member survey data and publications: send out a yearly survey in November, collect publications and publish before conference; and consider collaborative papers in the future
- Activate our members: Collect volunteers for abstract review and award reviews at conference (and in early fall); and activate volunteers for conference events from the fall survey
- Increase member visibility: Facilitate the scholarship and research contributions of members with competitive symposium; Encourage nomination of members for MNRS awards; Acknowledge contributions to the field with RIIG awards; Use RIIG webpage to highlight member achievements.
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Overall/Long Term Goals
1) Continue to improve/increase communication and networking between RIIG members outside of the Annual Meeting
2) Highlight the research and recognize the accomplishments of our members through all available mechanisms (e.g. MNRS website/MNRS Matters newsletter and Research Briefs).
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RIIG Minutes/Meeting Summary
If you are interested in learning more about the Palliative and End of Life Care RIIG, please explore the minutes from the past meetings:
Palliative & End-of-Life Care RIIG Minutes from the 2021 Annual Research Conference
Palliative & End-of-Life Care RIIG Minutes from the 2020 Annual Research Conference
Palliative & End-of-Life Care RIIG Minutes from the 2019 Annual Research Conference
Palliative & End-of-Life Care RIIG Minutes from the 2018 Annual Research Conference
Palliative & End-of-Life Care RIIG Minutes from the 2017 Annual Research Conference
Palliative & End-of-Life Care RIIG Minutes from the 2016 Annual Conference
RIIG Annual Conference Updates
- Member Survey Presentation 2020
- Competitive Symposium Program 2020
- Member Survey Presentation 2019
- Competitive Symposium Program 2019
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Faculty/Practice Member in the Spotlight
Dr. Gwen Wyatt. PhD. RN, FAAN
Dr. Gwen Wyatt’s research focuses on reducing symptoms and improving the quality of life of patients with cancer, and, more recently, their informal caregivers. She has served as a principal Investigator on nine completed studies that focused on interventions, including intervention design, intervention fidelity, intervention outcomes, safety, feasibility, and efficacy. Her specific research interest areas include end of life care, integrative therapies and the economics of incorporating integrative therapies into mainstream health care. Her most current research study focuses on improving symptom management among cancer patients using complementary therapies. Specific therapies in Dr Wyatt’s research have evaluated acupressure, reflexology, and meditative practices. Her contributions to nursing practice have been demonstrated by addressing the shift in care from hospital to clinic to home. She has developed nursing interventions for symptom management in the home by the patient and their designated caregivers. Findings from her work on supportive cancer care have been consistently disseminated nationally and internationally through publications and presentations.
Dr. Wyatt was recently honored as the Brandon Schools Distinguished Alumni and was added to their Wall of Fame for Distinguished Achievement in Nursing, Education, and Research in Ortonville, MI. She will also be attending this year’s 44th annual conference as a symposium special feature for the Symptom Science RIIG on the methodology used in her current R01 grant from NCI. It is on the Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) design. She will be inducted as a Fellow in the American Psychosocial Oncology Society in 2020 as well as will receive the Oncology Nursing Society’s distinguished researcher award in May 2020.
Mary Minton, PhD, RN, CNS, CHPN
Dr. Minton's professional career includes clinical expertise in medical-surgical, oncology, faith community nursing, and home health. She is a seasoned undergraduate and graduate nursing educator, researcher, and administrator. Dr. Minton's research expertise is in spiritual care and palliative and end-of-life care. Her most recent work was funded by the Hospice and Palliative Nursing Foundation and included instrument development to describe rural and urban nurse comfort with palliative and end-of-life communication.
She served in a faculty role at South Dakota State University College of Nursing for seven years before assuming the role of Associate Dean for Graduate Nursing. She also served as Interim Associate Dean for Nursing Research. Her membership in MNRS began when she was a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing in the early 2000’s. Dr. Minton has enjoyed participation on several MNRS committees and served as past chair and grants representative of the PEOLC RIIG.
Dr. Christine Fortney, PhD, RN
Dr. Christine “Chris” Fortney was the recipient of the 2019 New Investigator awards from both the Palliative and End-of-Life Care RIIG and the Symptom Science RIIG. Dr. Fortney has been a member of MNRS since 2012 and has served MNRS as a member of the Communications and Engagement Committee, an abstract reviewer, as Chair of the Palliative and EOL Care RIIG, and currently as Chair-elect of the Symptom Science RIIG.
Dr. Fortney is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University (OSU) and a nurse scientist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH). She has two Bachelor degrees from OSU; one in Journalism and one in nursing. Shethen went on to complete a Master’s degree in nursing with neonatal specialization and a PhD in Nursing, also from OSU. As a post-doctoral fellow, she completed the Patient Centered-Pediatric Research Program (PC-PReP) in the Center for Biobehavioral Health at NCH and then joined the faculty at OSU College of Nursing in 2015. From an F31 awarded as a doctoral student, to post-doctoral intramural funding, to a K23 as a junior faculty member, Dr. Fortney has built a program of research based on the study of the experiences of critically ill infants in the NICU and their families. Through the use of descriptive data, behavioral observations, and qualitative interviews, she has highlighted the trajectories of symptoms and suffering, as well as how perceptions of symptoms and suffering influence decision-making and changes in goals of care for both infants and their parents. She has also highlighted challenges to the identification and management of symptoms in critically ill infants in the NICU, developed a framework to evaluate the quality of neonatal death, and published the first manuscript to illuminate patient-reported symptom data in this population.
Archived Members in the Spotlight
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Student Member in the Spotlight
Lindsay Obarzanek, BSN, PhD Student
Lindsey Obarzanek is a PhD Student in the College of Nursing at Wayne State University. She received her BSN at Oakland University in 2008 and has explored many different pathways throughout her nursing career. Lindsey is most passionate about the vulnerable critical care patient population and recently submitted a proposal for a pilot study examining Dyspnea and Respiratory Distress in a Medical Intensive Care Unit setting. She plans to dedicate her future work to better understanding and treating the distressing symptom of dyspnea in this specific patient population, which is often unable to self-report. Under the mentorship of Dr. Margaret
Campbell, Lindsey has been fortunate to study and publish on this under-reported patient symptom experience.