Amy J. Hoffman, PhD, RN, FAAN

Professor, UNMC College of Nursing

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Phone: 402-559-2208

Dr. Amy Jude Hoffman joined the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 2018 as a Professor in the College of Nursing. She previously spent 35 years in nursing starting as a medical-surgical nurse and Associate Professor at Michigan State University. Dr. Hoffman’s research trajectory includes the design and testing of the Theory of Symptom Self-Management for application by clinical practitioners and researchers to advance the science of symptom self-management. She also designed an instrument for measuring Perceived Self-Efficacy for Fatigue Self-Management that is currently supporting researchers and clinicians worldwide (>50 requests, >15 countries). In October 2020, Dr. Hoffman was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and in March 2020, she was honored to receive the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Distinguished Scientist Award.

In 2018, Dr. Hoffman was honored to be awarded a five-year, three-arm randomized clinical trial, from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute (R01 CA205025) focusing on symptom self-management and cancer-related fatigue for post-surgical lung cancer patients using virtual reality-based exercise to improve symptom and functional status and quality of life. To develop the intervention, she recruited a team of interdisciplinary experts utilizing their knowledge and expertise to define and refine an innovative exercise program that disrupts debilitating deconditioning by providing post-thoracotomy patients safe exercise at home. The knowledge created through our feasibility and pilot two-arm RCT (R21 CA164515) using a multi-site and multi-state approach of health care professionals has provided the basis for culturally competent, scalable rehabilitation enhancing the physical functioning and quality of life of these lung cancer patients. Because of the highly successful recruitment (67%) and retention rates (97%) in this two-arm pilot RCT (R21 CA164515), 9 leading US and UK cancer centers have requested consultation regarding our methods.

In 2016, Dr. Hoffman received the Oncology Nursing Society Excellence In Surgical Oncology Nursing Award and served as guest editor in 2017 for an issue of Seminars in Oncology Nursing (a leading oncology nursing journal) that addressed surgical oncology nursing. Upon their request, she has also served as an expert scientific reviewer for the American College of Thoracic Surgeons. She has been an invited chair and scientific reviewer for numerous groups including the National Institutes of Health; American College of Sports Medicine; Oncology Nursing Society; U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, and, the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Hoffman enjoys teaching and mentoring, and her students are sought as research assistants and scholars who have achieved funding.