UF nurse researcher receives national achievement medal

The American Association for Cancer Education has awarded University of Florida Eminent Scholar Carol Reed Ash, R.N., Ed.D., the Margaret Hay Edwards Achievement Medal for her outstanding contributions to cancer education.

This is the first time the multidisciplinary organization has selected a nurse to receive the medal.

Ash, who holds the Kirbo endowed chair in oncology nursing at UF, has received 15 years of consecutive funding, totaling more than $1.1 million in grants from the National Cancer Institute to develop and implement a cancer education program for nurses in developing countries.

The program teaches nurses about symptom management, addressing such topics as pain, nutrition, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, mucositis, psychosocial support, palliative care and alternative therapies. The program also helps nurses around the world develop patient and public education programs about cancer risk and prevention. Emphasis is placed on breast, cervical, esophageal, gastrointestinal, liver and lung cancers.

Ash has presented the program to 123 nurses from 77 countries in conjunction with co-investigator Ruth McCorkle, R.N., Ph.D., of Yale University, and with faculty from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Utah.

Post-conference surveys have shown a dramatic increase in cancer-related activities by participating nurses in their home countries, including an increase in cancer content in nursing education programs; increased public, patient and professional presentations on cancer prevention; and improvement in the delivery of cancer care.

Ash, a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, also developed GatorSHADE, a skin cancer prevention program for elementary school students and their parents.