Maureen Metzger, an assistant professor in Acute and Specialty Care Department, studies patient and family member experiences with life-limiting illnesses, especially communication and decision-making in the context of life-limiting illness.

After more than 20 years in direct patient care and 30 years as an oncology nurse, Dr. Metzger returned to school to pursue a doctorate in health practice research. She is currently researching the feasibility and acceptability of a communication intervention designed to enhance preparedness for end-of-life decision-making in patients with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) and their surrogate decision-makers, and to describe the caregiving experience of a subset of LVAD caregivers.

She is interested in increasing the understanding of patients’ and families’ experiences with and perspectives on palliative care, and how patients and families make sense of life-limiting illness, communicate with each other and with their clinicians, and make treatment-related decisions. Her long-term research goals include developing and implementing interventions designed to improve the experience of patients and families confronting life-limiting illnesses and ultimately expanding the evidence base upon which integrative, patient and family-centered models of care are built.