Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care

Judith A. Spross is a senior scientist at the Center for Applied Ethics & Professional Practice at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and project director of PainLink. At EDC, she is also co-investigator on a federally-funded project to improve cancer pain management in primary care. She has held clinical nurse specialist and graduate educator positions. She also has experience in hospice and medical-surgical nursing. Prior to joining EDC in 1996, Judy worked at a rehabilitation hospital, where she established an interdisciplinary pain management team and helped institutionalize appropriate assessment and treatment of pain. While working at Massachusetts General Hospital she collaborated with a physical therapist to initiate a graduate course in pain management at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She also worked with physician colleagues to establish the MGH Cancer Pain Center, where she cared for outpatients suffering from pain due to cancer and other serious illnesses. She was co-author of the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Position Paper on Cancer Pain (1990) and co-chaired the group that developed the 1998 ONS Cancer Pain Management Position Paper. She received a BSN from Villanova University, an MS in nursing from the Medical College of Virginia, and a doctorate in nursing from Boston College. She is certified in oncology nursing. Honors include the 1985 ONS Schering Award for Excellence in Practice, election to the Academy of Nursing (1992), and the 1993 Distinguished Alumna Award (Villanova University).

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