Author E. Hughes Career Achievement Award
Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science
Marilyn T. Macdonald ’05 (PhD)
Associate Professor, School of Nursing at Dalhousie University
Marilyn Macdonald earned a PhD in nursing from the University of San Diego’s Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science in 2005. She is currently an associate professor in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Professions at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
She holds an undergraduate degree in nursing from the University of New Brunswick and a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Southern Maine. Following the completion of her doctoral work, she was accepted into a research internship under the tutelage of Dr. Nancy Edwards who holds a research chair funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. This internship culminated in Dr. Macdonald being selected as the recipient of the internship’s research excellence award.
Dr. Macdonald has an extensive background in clinical nursing in the areas of general surgical nursing, cardio-vascular nursing, public-health nursing and home care. She also spent a decade as a clinical nurse specialist before entering academia. Her clinical career was primarily based in New Brunswick, Canada, and, in 2004, Dr. Macdonald received a merit award from the Nurses Association of New Brunswick for her leadership and mentorship in nursing.
Dr. Macdonald has taught courses in both the undergraduate and graduate programs, including pathophysiology to undergraduate students and adult health theory practice courses as well as qualitative research methodology to graduate students both at the master’s and doctoral levels. She supervises theses at the master’s and doctoral levels and serves as a peer reviewer for several scholarly journals as well as national funding agencies.
Her program of research is focused on patient safety, particularly safety in home care. Dr. Macdonald is a member of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute Core Team of Researchers on Safety in home care and is currently serving roles as principal investigator, co-principal investigator or project lead on five studies in this area, four of which are funded nationally.
