SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Megan Pfitzinger is a second year doctoral student who completed her MSN (’11) and BSN (’09) from the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing (SoN). Her research area is palliative care and nursing education, with a current emphasis on evaluating palliative care content within pre-licensure nursing curriculum. Her research goals are to develop evidence-based teaching strategies and to evaluate the effectiveness of nursing curricula in providing appropriate palliative care education to pre-licensure students. She has three years of teaching experience, and currently works as an Assistant Instructor in Clinical Nursing at UT SoN. Her previous clinical background is cardiac and critical care nursing. Megan is a previous recipient of fellowships and scholarships from the National League for Nursing, National Student Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau Epsilon Theta Chapter, and Texas Nurses Association District 5. She currently serves as the President for the Epsilon Theta chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She is a proud wife and mother of daughter, Sadie (19 months), and son, Miles (3 weeks). As a Jonas Scholar, Megan plans to use the tools and resources available at UT SoN and within the Jonas Scholar program to continue to develop as a nurse scientist, nurse educator, and future nurse leader.