“About the Editors” in “Toward a Moral Horizon”
About the Editors
Dr. Rosalie Starzomski
Dr. Rosalie Starzomski is a professor emeritus at the University of Victoria School of Nursing. She is a graduate of Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Nursing (1978), the University of Calgary with a Master of Nursing (1984), and the University of British Columbia (UBC) with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing (1997). Her research, practice, teaching, and publications are focused on health care and nursing ethics, organ donation and transplantation, nephrology, biotechnology, end-of-life care, and advanced nursing practice. Dr. Starzomski has received a number of research grants from provincial and national organizations for her scholarly work and is co-editor of three editions of the book Toward a Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics for Leadership and Practice. She has a longstanding interest in science fiction and the many ethical issues illuminated within that genre—issues often relevant for nurses and other health care providers when facing the rapid implementation of new technological developments into the health care system.
In 1984, Dr. Starzomski was the first advanced practice nurse at the Vancouver General Hospital, and, as a clinical nurse specialist in nephrology and transplantation, she worked with a variety of interdisciplinary teams in her areas of practice. For a number of years, she was an ethics consultant at the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and was committee chair for several ethics committees. In addition to her teaching at the University of Victoria School of Nursing, Dr. Starzomski has held a number of leadership positions, including associate director for the Lower Mainland campus, associate director for research and scholarship, and coordinator of the Advanced Practice Leadership Master’s option.
Throughout her career, Dr. Starzomski has played an active role in health care policy development and has contributed to provincial, national, and international committees and task forces for organizations such as Canuck Place, the Kidney Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Nurses Association, the Canadian Council for Donation and Transplantation, and the World Council for Renal Care. Dr. Starzomski has been a member of Health Canada’s Expert Advisory Committee on Xenograft Regulation, the Canadian Institute for Health Information Organ Replacement Register, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Standing Committee on Ethics, and the BC Ministry of Health Provincial Forum for Clinical Ethics Support and Coordination. She has been the recipient of a number of awards, including an Award of Excellence for Nursing and an Award of Excellence for Nursing Practice, both from the Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia; the University of Victoria School of Nursing Award of Excellence for Nursing Education; the UBC School of Nursing Alumni Award of Distinction; and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for outstanding and exemplary service to the community and to Canada. In 2017, Dr. Starzomski was named by the Canadian Nurses Association as one of 150 Canadian nurse innovators and champions in health care, in honour of the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
Dr. Janet (Jan) Storch
Dr. Janet (Jan) Storch is a professor emeritus at the University of Victoria School of Nursing. She earned her degrees from the University of Alberta: a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (1963), a Master of Health Services Administration (1977), and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Sociology (1987). Dr. Storch was a professor in the Health Services Administration program at the University of Alberta and developed and taught courses on the history and values of the Canadian health care system. From 1990 to 1996, Dr. Storch was dean of nursing at the University of Calgary, and from 1996 to 2001, she was director of the School of Nursing at the University of Victoria.
Dr. Storch has been a scholar in health care ethics and nursing ethics since the mid-1970s. In 1982, she published an influential book titled Patients’ Rights: Ethical and Legal Issues in Health Care and Nursing. In 1996, she was a Visiting Fellow (Bioethics) at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. During her career, Dr. Storch received research funding from several provincial and national health funding bodies. She has served as president of the Canadian Bioethics Society, president of the National Council on Ethics in Human Research, and was the chair of the Research Ethics Board of Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada. From 1999 to 2019, Dr. Storch served on the US-based Western Institutional Review Board. She continues to publish articles, chapters, and books related to health care and nursing ethics, and has been co-editor of three editions of Toward a Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics for Leadership and Practice.
Dr. Storch led three revisions of the Canadian Nurses Association’s (CNA) Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses (in 2002, 2008, and, most recently, in 2017), and she served as scholar in residence at the CNA in 2001–2002. Dr. Storch was a founding member of one of the earliest ethics centres in Canada, the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre, established in 1985 at the University of Alberta. From 1992 to 1996, Dr. Storch served as chair of the Alberta Health Provincial Health Ethics Network Steering Committee. She has been a member of several ethics committees, including the Mount St. Mary’s Hospital (Victoria, BC) ethics committee as well as the Regional Ethics Committee, Vancouver Island Health Authority, and the BC Ministry of Health Provincial Forum for Clinical Ethics Support and Coordination.
Dr. Storch has been honoured by several provincial and national nursing associations and Canadian universities. She was the recipient of the 1982 Alberta Association of Registered Nurses Abe Miller Memorial Nurse of the Year Award; the Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia Award of Distinction; and the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing Ethel Johns Award (given in recognition of distinguished service to nursing education in Canada). Dr. Storch has received an Alumni Honour Award from the University of Alberta, an honorary Doctor of Science from Ryerson University, and an honorary doctorate (Doctorem in Legibus) from the University of Western Ontario.
Dr. Patricia (Paddy) Rodney
Dr. Patricia (Paddy) Rodney is an associate professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Nursing. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Alberta (1977); a Master of Science in Nursing from UBC (1988); and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing from UBC (1997). She is a co-editor of three editions of the book Toward a Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics for Leadership and Practice.
Dr. Rodney worked in critical care nursing at St. Paul’s Hospital, where she had the opportunity to learn about—and later teach in—a rapidly evolving area of clinical nursing practice. She came face to face with ethical challenges regarding end-of-life decision making for patients and their families, and witnessed the moral distress experienced by nurses and other health care providers. This fostered her lifelong interest in nursing ethics and health care ethics.
From 2007 to 2009, Dr. Rodney served as president of the Canadian Bioethics Society. She was also a founding board member of the Association of Registered Nurses of British Columbia and has consulted widely in the area of nursing ethics. She has had a longstanding research and teaching focus on understanding and addressing the moral distress of health care providers and the moral climate of health care delivery. During her career, Dr. Rodney has worked with practice-based research colleagues on diverse research initiatives to address these topics, as well as related policy challenges in health care delivery. She has also worked extensively in nursing education—teaching leadership, ethics, policy, and relational practice in the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs at the University of Victoria and UBC.
Dr. Rodney has been committed to influencing health care policy and was a member of a British Columbia panel on cardiac health. From 2016 to 2018, she was an expert member of a Canadian panel on medical assistance in dying. She has been a member of ethics committees in British Columbia and has served on the BC Ministry of Health Provincial Forum for Clinical Ethics Support and Coordination.
Dr. Rodney has received a number of awards for her scholarly work, including an Award of Excellence for Nursing from the Xi Eta chapter of Sigma Theta Tau and an Award of Distinction from the College of Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia. In 2014, she received the Canadian Bioethics Society Distinguished Services Award for her work in health care ethics. Dr. Rodney was awarded the Dean’s Medal of Distinction by the UBC Faculty of Applied Science in 2021 for bringing high honour to the faculty through her contributions to the advancement of its vision, mission, and mandate.
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