Maria Rugg

I have been a registered nurse for 26 years and a member of RNAO as a student and RN for 30 years. The majority of my career clinically has reflected pediatric nursing as a nurse/nurse practitioner with extensive experience in acute/chronic care focusing on palliative care and pain management. My education reflects honours nursing undergraduate degree at the University of Windsor and Master’s degree as a nurse practitioner at the University of Toronto. This has continued with my national CNA certification in palliative care since 2001. RNAO involvement has spanned my nursing career with 10 years within the pediatric nursing interest group executive and involvement in the palliative nursing interest group and executive nursing interest group over the last five years.

My lifelong passion is to work in areas of patient experience and patient related outcomes; to facilitate change in order to improve health and overall well being of patients and families. I have worked to ensure that my areas of influence have pushed forward the patient experience from start to finish, and for patients and their families this has been something that reflects their values and goals of health. The key drivers of my contributions are to ensure that in connecting with the health-care system, contributed to securing patients and their families overall wellbeing in a positive and self-sustaining way. I am fortunate to have been afforded these opportunities in all the areas I have worked and volunteered in, including management, clinical leadership, education, quality improvement and research.