Former nursing research committee chair passes away - Obituary

AORN Journal,  Dec, 2002  

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Edwina A. McConnell, RN, PhD, FRCNA, died Wednesday, Oct 16, 2002, of ovarian cancer. Dr McConnell, a member of AORN since 1978, served on AORN's Nursing Research Committee from 1995 to 1997 and chaired the committee from 1998 to 2000. She also chaired the AORN task force that authored the standards for recovery room nursing in 1980.

Dr McConnell earned her baccalaureate degree from Boston University School of Nursing, a master's degree from the University of Colorado, Denver, and a doctorate from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her areas of research interest included RN use of technology in direct patient care, technology assessment, and international nursing. She conducted international collaborative research projects related to these topics and published the results in numerous nursing and health care journals. In 1992, she was one of 100 American nurses invited to participate in the Second Conference on Research Priorities in Nursing Science.

Dr McConnell authored more than 250 articles, numerous book chapters, and six books, including Clinical Considerations in Perioperative Nursing: Preventive Aspects of Care published by Lippincott. She won an AORN Journal Writers Contest award in 1994 for her article titled "Perioperative nurses' roles in managing new technology." She also spoke at local, regional, national, and international conferences.

During her career, Dr McConnell served in staff and management roles at Maine Medical Center, Portland; Boston City Hospital; Denver General Hospital; and Madison General Hospital, Wis. Later, she was a professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing, Lubbock, and a visiting professor at the University of South Australia, School of Nursing, Adelaide. More recently she worked as an independent nurse consultant in Madison, Wis, while continuing to work part time as a staff nurse to maintain her clinical skills. Two years ago, she returned to her childhood home in Gorham, Me, to finish her seventh book, a biography of Elinor Gregg, RN.

Dr McConnell was a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, Australia, and a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the American Nurses Association, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the International Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care, and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. The AORN Board of Directors and staff members express their sincere condolences to her family members, friends, and colleagues.

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