Faculty
Program faculty have had interdisciplinary experience in various aspects of hospice and/or palliative care. Their areas of current practice include palliative care and hospice nursing, pain management, health care related technology, and cancer nursing education.
Paula Nelson Marten, RN, PhD, AOCN, has been involved in oncology nursing and end-of-life care since 1982. With Dr. Linda Krebs, she developed a master’s degree clinical specialist option in oncology nursing at the CU College of Nursing. Paula developed her active interest in palliative care in 1996 as a participant in the Roxane Scholar Program at Northwestern Medical School. Currently she teaches in the college’s master’s program CNS option in acute, critical, and palliative care. She is a member of the interdisciplinary palliative care group at the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH).
Nancy K. English, RN, PhD, APN. Dr. English’s experience as a hospice nurse enhanced her commitment to palliative care. She specializes in teaching nurses how to incorporate sacred and spiritual care into their practice. Currently, she is coordinating an interdisciplinary palliative care service at The Children’s Hospital, Denver.
Ellyn Matthews, RN, PhD, AOCN, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado College of Nursing, is an advanced oncology certified nurse (AOCN) with a focus on the symptom experience across the cancer trajectory. Areas of interest include pain, psychosocial distress, and symptom management in cancer populations. Current NIH-funded research involves testing behavioral interventions for chronic insomnia after breast cancer treatment. Dr. Matthews is also exploring sleep disturbances in other cancer populations including melanoma and mothers of children with leukemia using both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Regina Fink, RN, PhD, FAAN, AOCN, is a research nurse scientist in professional resources department at UCH, where she consults with nurses and other health care professionals on evidence-based practice and research projects. She has focused her career on caring for persons with cancer and pain. She was a co-investigator on an NIH grant on palliative care, where she assisted in integrating palliative care and pain management content into the curricula of nursing and medical schools. She was a co-investigator on an Agency for Health Care Research and Quality grant awarded to the University of Colorado College of Nursing, Improving Pain Management in Colorado Nursing Homes. She has developed a pain assessment guide, equianalgesic reference card, and pain assessment DVD that has been distributed nationally to hospitals and other health facilities including hospices and home care agency staff. One of her many publications includes a practical handbook for oncology nurses, Oncology Nursing Secrets. She is a national lecturer on pain and evidence-based practice and has multiple publications.
Original grant members who have left the project include Dr. Suzanne Howell who served as the project evaluator and whose expertise is in pain management and Dr. Maureen Pangle who currently is a hospice director for Agape Hospice of Denver.
Project Consultants
The following were project consultants for the original National Cancer Institute grant (2001-05):
Colleen Scanlon, RN, MS, JD. The project faculty selected Colleen Scanlon as their consultant because of her expertise and practice in end-of-life care ethics.
David Weissman, MD. Dr. Weissman is a professor of medicine and palliative care at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is a pioneer in palliative care medicine and has done extensive work in role modeling with physicians, students, and institutions to promote change in improving end-of-life care. David’s mind set and practice is in keeping with the goals of the grant.