In Memoriam: Ruth McCorkle, PhD, RN, FAPOS, FAAN (1940–2019)

Notably, Ruth was the first non-medical research recipient of a National Cancer Institute Research Training Grant, was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1990, and was named Nurse Scientist of the Year by the Council of Nurse Researchers in 1993. After 12 years on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, Ruth joined Yale Cancer Center and the Yale School of Nursing in 1998 and focused her career on psychosocial oncology, symptom science, palliative care, and quality of life research. The purpose of this landmark study was to describe spouses’ psychological distress across the caregiving trajectory from the patients’ diagnosis until 2 years after the patients’ death and to test the effects of an oncology nursing intervention on patient and caregiver outcomes.