Dr Mary Jane Esplen - Part 2

Director - de Souza Institute

This is the second half of the interview with Mary Jane. In this portion of our conversation we move from psychosocial oncology to how she has evolved from nurse to her current role as Director of the de Souza Institute. Mary Jane shares her development as a researcher and scientist and how her skills of learning, research and grant writing have helped her take on the steep learning curve she is on.

Links

• The Brazilian Ball
• de Souza Institute & de Souza Institute Steering Committee

Questions:

Mary Jane Esplen: Do you have any suggestions for what de Souza should offer?

Rob Fraser: How are you learning and informing your nursing practice (journals, online videos, google, powerpoint, etc)?

Dr Mary Jane Esplen RN

Clinician Scientist and Professor - University of Toronto

Area of expertise: Psychosocial Oncology

Dr Mary Jane Esplen has an extensive career in clinical oncology practice that has evolved over the years to include research as major part of her role. Her ability to drive research strongly tied to clinical practice and how she managed to stay in both academia and practice is part of what we talk about. More recently she has been appointed Director of the de Souza Institute for nursing oncology knowledge transfer for the province, and is planning to take this international. We discuss how her career evolved, why she loves psychosocial oncology and how others might learn from her experience.

Research

• Some of Mary Jane's research Search Results
• Quality of Life Tools for adult patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy
• Literature Search: Body Image + Cancer
• Profile: Jimmie Holland MD - Pscyho Oncology
• Effects of psychological interventions on survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer

Other

• Definition of Nursing Intervention Model
• Research profile of Mary Jane
• Dr David Spiegel - Psychosocial Researcher
• de Souza Intitute
• Canadian Partnership Against Cancer
• Oncology Nursing Society

Questions:

Mary Jane Esplen: What is the impact of new technologies on practice? Who should be involved in helping families involve these technologies? How can they change clinical practice? What can my role be in this?

Rob Fraser: Are you seeing cancer starting to come into your area of practice? Are you aware of the research that is happening in oncology and how it might improve your practice?