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Registration Details

This course is offered at no cost but a deposit of $100 is required to save your space for the course. Cheques will not be deposited unless participants fail to cancel their registration before February 22, 2012 or fail to complete the course. Please see our Cancellation & No Show Policy.

Please mail your cheque to:

de Souza Institute
700 University Avenue
Hydro Place, HSC #14
Toronto, ON M5G 1Z5

The Instructors:

Maria Rugg graduated from the University of Windsor with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with Honours in 1990. She obtained her Master’s of Nursing Science, Acute Care Nurse Practitioner in Pediatrics from the University of Toronto in 2001. She was nominated and has been member of Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honour Society, Phi Lamda Chapter since 2000. Presently she works as Acute Care Nurse Practitioner for Pediatric Palliative and Bereavement Service at The Hospital for Sick Children. Maria has just accepted a position as the manager of the Supportive and Psycho-Social Oncology Program with the Peel Regional Cancer Centre at The Credit Valley Hospital. She has been honored with several awards including: Hospital for Sick Children Nursing Excellence Award 1993, 1996; RNAO Foundation Award 1995 and nominated for HSC Humanitarian Award 1995. She sits on a variety of boards both locally and nationally all related to pediatric palliative and bereavement care.  Her recent achievements include being a co-investigator on a team who successfully received a research grant 60,000(U.S.) grant from the Bayer Institute For Health Care Communication for a project titled: “Can We Ease The Burden: Learning From Parents in End-of-Life Decision Making.”

Dr. Norma D’Agostino holds a Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Toronto. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in psychosocial oncology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 2003 and was the staff psychologist for the oncology Aftercare program at SickKids until 2005. Dr. D'Agostino is currently a registered clinical health psychologist working in the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care and in the Cancer Survivorship Program at Princess Margaret Hospital. She is also appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and an adjunct faculty member of the Psychology Graduate program at York University. Dr. D’Agostino’s clinical practice and program of research focuses on young adult survivors of cancer, in particular long-term survivors of childhood cancer. Her specific research interests include better understanding the impact of cancer early in life on young adult development, identifying risk and protective factors to predict survivors' psychosocial outcomes, and developing evidence based interventions to meet the unique needs of young adult cancer survivors; including preparing survivors for the transition from the pediatric to adult health care.

Christine Newman is a medical graduate of the University of Toronto. She undertook specialty training in pediatrics and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto.  Chris did subspecialty training in neonatology and worked as a neonatologist at SickKids for 17 years.  A difficult end-of-life case in the NICU prompted Chris to spend her academic leave studying palliative care.  During this period she discovered a passion for working with patients with life-limiting illnesses and their families.  Once her academic leave was completed, Chris had the opportunity to join the SickKids Palliative and Bereavement Care Service, providing medical consultation to children with life-limiting illnesses and their families.  She also is involved in paediatric palliative care education and advocacy at the local, provincial and national level. In 2010 Chris received the SickKids Foundation Robert Salter Humanitarian Award.

Abby Bezant began her nursing career in General Pediatrics at London Health Sciences Centre in 2002, before moving to The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, ON where she has since worked for over 8 years. The focus of Abby’s practice has been in both pediatric hematology and oncology. Abby’s experience includes work on the Inpatient Pediatric Haematology/Oncology Unit at SickKids, and as a Program Coordinator for the Division’s Satellite Program. Abby’s interests include adult education and palliative care nursing. Abby holds a BScN from the University of Western Ontario, and will be completing her MN from the University of Athabasca in December of 2010.