MSc/PhD candidate Pauline Voon wins Dr. Dorothy J Kergin Fellowship Award

Congratulations to MSc/PhD student Pauline Voon who has received the Dr. Dorothy J Kergin Fellowship masters award from the Canadian Nurses Foundation.

This award was established by Dr. Kergin, a distinguished nurse, who was Professor and Associate Dean of Health Sciences at McMaster University and later Professor and Director of the School of Nursing at the University of Victoria.

Pauline is a Registered Nurse and a graduate of the UBC School of Nursing, whose nursing practice in acute, community, global health and research settings has focused on health promotion among vulnerable populations with complex health issues including HIV/AIDS, addiction, chronic pain, and mental illness. Her current research focuses on pain among individuals with a history of substance use, and its implications for health, risk behaviors and clinical care. She is particularly interested in investigating the prevalence and correlates of self-managed pain and undertreated pain among people who use illicit drugs, and associated harms such as illicit opioid use, overdose, and HIV risk behavior.

Pauline, who is supervised by Dr. Jane Buxton and Dr. Thomas Kerr, began the MSc program at SPPH in September 2014, and will be transferring into the PhD program this coming September.