The drive to help cancer patients manage their fatigue began for Barbara
F. Piper, D.N.S., in 1977. She was taking care of a cancer patient whose
fatigue disrupted the patients life so much that she refused another potentially
life-saving treatment.
Dr. Piper, University of Nebraska Medical Center associate professor
of nursing, will be honored at an international conference Aug. 28-Sept.1,
for her significant contributions internationally in cancer care.
She will receive the Robert Tiffany Memorial Lectureship Award at the
12th International Conference on Cancer Nursing in London, England. The
award honors a nurse who has made significant contributions nationally
or internationally in cancer practice, education, research or management.
It memorializes Tiffanys contributions and visionary leadership in cancer
nursing, who started his career in cancer nursing in 1967. He went to the
Royal Marsden Hospital in London to take an oncology nursing course. Twenty-six
years later, he had transformed the hospital and specialism of cancer nursing
beyond recognition, said a fact sheet on Tiffany.
The award previously was given three times: twice to Europeans and once
to an American.
While it was an incredible honor to just be nominated for this prestigious
international award, to actually be the recipient of it and not have it
be a posthumous award, is very special, Dr. Piper said. The award is
particularly meaningful to me, since I knew Bob when he was still alive
and had the pleasure of attending one previous award lectureship.
Dr. Piper will receive an all expense-paid round trip to the conference,
an honorarium, a plaque, and a reception given in her honor. During the
conference, Dr. Piper will present a one-hour lecture titled Cancer-Related
Fatigue: Past Perspectives Future Imperatives. She also will facilitate
a roundtable discussion.
Dr. Piper, whose curriculum vitae is steep with grant contracts, consultant
work and presentations dealing with fatigue and breast cancer, was principal
investigator of the first international cancer-related fatigue investigation
ever conducted.
I am very much looking forward to stimulating additional research in
this area, she said.
Fatigue is the most common side effect cancer patients experience from
treatment, as well as the most distressing one, Dr. Piper said.
Dr. Piper was nominated by Paula Rieger, president of the National Oncology
Nursing Society, along with two other individuals, Agnes Glaus, Ph.D.,
president of the European Oncology Nursing Society, and Victoria Mock,
Ph.D., associate professor and director of nursing research at Johns Hopkins
University.
She is a pioneer in fatigue research and has developed a theoretical
framework for fatigue and the Piper Fatigue Scale, which is one of the
few multidimensional tools available to measure fatigue, one of the nominators
wrote. Barbara is unique among nurses in the United States, in that she
is one of the few that has gained worldwide recognition for her work. She
has mentored nurses from all over the world in their work on fatigue and
has furthered their understanding of the management of this symptom.
Dr. Piper is a member of a variety of organizations, including the American
Society of Clinical Oncology, the Oncology Nursing Society, as well as
co-chairing the Cancer Fatigue Study Group of the Multinational Association
of Supportive Care in Cancer. She has received many awards, including becoming
a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.
She has published about 80 abstracts and proceedings and made 146 presentations
and/or panel discussions all over the United States and the world. She
has published more than 15 book chapters on cancer-related fatigue.
Dr. Piper graduated in 1965 with a bachelors degree in nursing from
the Syracuse University School of Nursing. In 1972, she earned a masters
degree, and in 1992, a doctorate degree from the University of California
San Francisco School of Nursing.
Dr. Piper began her academic career in nursing in 1973 as a nursing
instructor at the College of Marin, Kentfield, Calif. In 1979 she served
as associate clinical director of a post-masters nursing fellowship program
in oncology nursing education at San Jose State University, while serving
as continuing education specialist in cancer nursing at the University
of California San Francisco School of Nursing. From 1986 to 1990, she served
as a teaching assistant at UCSF, where in 1994, she became an associate
clinical professor there, a title she continues to hold.
In 1996, she became an associate professor at the UNMC College of Nursing
and in 2001 was appointed as a graduate faculty fellow.