Bakitas, who also is associate director of the UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, will present “Palliative Care: If it makes a difference ‘Why Wait?’”If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Lauren Antia, lar@uab.edu or 205-934-2145, by Friday, Feb. 5. The lecture is sponsored by the UAB School of Nursing Office of Research and Scholarship.
Bakitas is an internationally recognized scholar and researcher whose content expertise focuses on the principles and concepts of hematology/oncology, bone marrow/stem cell transplantation, pain and symptom management, and novel qualitative and mixed methods research in addition to palliative care. Currently, she is the principal investigator of a five-year, $3.5 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research to expand her study of a telephone intervention to improve quality of life and reduce symptom burden in patients and caregivers for patients with relatively advanced heart failure.
She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, her Master of Science in Nursing degree from Boston University, a Post-Master’s certification as an adult nurse practitioner from the University of New Hampshire and her Doctor of Nursing Science degree from Yale University. Bakitas is nationally certified as an adult nurse practitioner, advanced certified hospice and palliative care nurse and advanced oncology certified nurse.
She has received numerous awards throughout her career including recognitions from the Oncology Nursing Society, the Council on the Advancement of Nursing Science and The Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) and in 2015 was named the recipient of the 2015 Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR) Path-Paver Award, given to a mid-to-late career nurse scientist who has achieved one or more breakthroughs in theory development, research methods, instruments, or subject matter that has paved the way for other scientists and who has influenced and mentored the next generation of nurse researchers.
The Dr. Marie L. O’Koren Endowed Chair in Nursing, established in 1992 through the support of friends, colleagues and fellow faculty of O’Koren, was the School’s first-ever endowed chair. Its purpose is to support the work of an internationally renowned academician, researcher and clinician whose expertise supports the School’s research mission.
