Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 13, 2001Volume 29, Number 26



Ruth McCorkle



McCorkle is appointed Florence
Wald Professor of Nursing

Ruth McCorkle, newly named as the Florence Wald Professor of Nursing, is an international leader in cancer nursing and education who has conducted landmark research on the psychosocial ramifications of cancer.

Along with Dr. Jeanne Quint-Benoliel, McCorkle developed standardized scales to measure distressing symptoms and functional changes in patients undergoing cancer treatments. The Symptom Distress Scale and the Enforced Social Dependence Scale have been widely adopted.

She also led a study funded by the American Cancer Society that examined the impact of nursing care on quality-of-life outcomes in post-prostatectomy patients.

McCorkle is a coeditor of the textbook "Cancer Nursing," now in its second edition, which won the American Journal of Nursing's Book-of-the-Year Award in 1991. Her journal articles have addressed such topics as palliative care for HIV disease, nurses' use of palliative care in the acute-care setting and specialized home-care intervention on the survival of elderly post-surgical cancer patients, among others.

McCorkle joined the Yale faculty in 1998 as the founding director of the School of Nursing's Center for Excellence in Chronic Illness Care and chair of the School of Nursing's doctoral program. She is also program leader of cancer control at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center and a professor in the department of epidemiology and public health.

A graduate of the University of Maryland, where she earned a B.A. in nursing, McCorkle received an M.A. in medical-surgical nursing from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in mass communications from the Univeristy of Iowa's School of Journalism. Prior to coming to Yale, she was associate director of cancer control at the University of Pennsylvania, where she had also served as director of the Center for Advancing Care in Serious Illness and chair of the Adult Health and Illness Division..

McCorkle has received numerous honors for her work, including a Distinguished Merit Award from the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care and a Distinstigusihed Research Award from the Oncology Nursing Society. In 1993 she was recognized as Nurse Scientist of the Year by the American Nurses Association. She is a member of the American Academy of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine, as well as other professional nursing organizations.


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Berkeley Divinity School gets $1 million gift to fund new chapel

First Kingsley Trust Fellows are named

Journalists to discuss forces shaping the environmental agenda

William Lanman, Yale alumnus and benefactor, dies

Beinecke show pays tribute to public-spirited alumnus collector


ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

Stephen Smith will serve a second term as master of Branford College

Peabody exhibit highlights life in a local tidal marsh

Alumnus' donation of books to library includes extensive collection of Molière

Illinois Governor George Ryan to reflect on death penalty


MEDICAL CENTER NEWS

Mellon Foundation grant will fund Latin American studies

Noted alumnus conductor to lead 'Royal Blue' concert

Chinese students, scholars display 'Images from Home'

Public forum to focus on faith and citizenship

Communiversity Day: A Photo Essay

'Setting Sail' exhibit on view at Slifka Center

'Art and Conflict' is theme of International Festival of Arts & Ideas

Noted historian to be Beinecke Library fellow

Trumbull College senior Robert Blake Gilpin awarded annual . . .

Memorial service planned for former instructor Effie Geanakoplos

YES will announce Y50K award winners at April 14 gala

Medical school dean Dr. David Kessler to talk at tea



Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News|Bulletin Board

Yale Scoreboard|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines

Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs Home|News Releases| E-Mail Us|Yale Home Page