Megan Pfitzinger

Winner of the Mathy Mezey Scholarship, is a fourth year doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also completed her MSN (’11) and BSN (’09). Her research area focuses on palliative care, end-of-life care, and nursing education. Her dissertation study focuses on developing a method to evaluate palliative and end-of-life care content curricular integration and its relationship with associated baccalaureate nursing student’s learning outcomes. Her long-term research goals are to develop and evaluate evidence-based teaching strategies for their effectiveness in preparing nursing students to provide competent palliative care upon entering practice. She plans to develop inter-professional teaching strategies focused on the provision of competent palliative care as well. Megan has four years of teaching experience at the University of Texas at Austin where she currently works as an Assistant Instructor in Clinical Practice. Her previous clinical background is cardiac and critical care nursing. Megan is a 2014-2016 Jonas Scholar. She is President of the Epsilon Theta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, and a member of Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, National League for Nursing, and the American Cancer Society: Cancer Action Network. She is a proud wife and mother of daughter, Sadie (2 ½ years), and son Miles (1 year). Following graduation, Megan plans to pursue a tenure-track position at a university where she can continue to develop as a nurse scientist, nurse educator, and future nurse leader.