Margaret Rosenzweig, PhD, CRNP-C, AOCNP

Position: Professor, Department of Acute/Tertiary Care

Specialty: Oncology

Back Story: As a student, Rosenzweig thought she would be a staff nurse, perhaps specializing in psychiatric nursing, when she finished her undergraduate nursing program. That all changed in her senior year, when she cared for a patient with cancer at the end of life. “It was instant that I knew these were the patients I wanted to work with,” she remembers. “I was interested in cancer, chemotherapy, the whole process of living with cancer, what it did to the family--all of that was very intriguing to me.”

Class Act: Rosenzweig developed the curriculum for the oncology focus in the acute care nurse practitioner program. Because she also is in clinical practice as a nurse practitioner for women with breast cancer, Rosenzweig can bring case studies in to supplement textbook teaching. “In order for students to learn the material, it needs to be presented in a very clear algorithm,” she says. “But it adds a great deal of validity to what you’re saying when you can talk about what you see in practice.”

Investigations: While racial disparities in cancer screening and prevention have attracted earlier attention, Rosenzweig focuses her research efforts on racial disparity in cancer treatment. “It’s about what happens when Black patients come to the cancer care world and what the difference is between the experience of a Black patient and a White patient,” she says. “I do a lot of general cancer lectures in the school across the master’s and undergraduate [programs]. I always feel that I want to be an advocate for being sensitive to cultural needs.”

Of Note: Rosenzweig was selected as a 2014 fellow of the prestigious American Academy of Nursing, where she joins thought leaders in nursing and health care.

First published in Pitt Nurse magazine, Fall 2014