Meagan Whisenant
PhD, APRN, FAAN
John S. Dunn Distinguished Professor in Oncology Nursing
Director, PhD Program
Associate Professor
Department of Research
Dr. Whisenant is an Associate Professor in the Department of Research at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston and a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar in Cancer Research and was a National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health Research Scholar. She is a family nurse practitioner with over 25 years of oncology nursing experience in inpatient and outpatient settings. Dr. Whisenant’s research focuses on developing and using patient-reported outcomes measures in clinical care and research, variation in symptom burden across the chronic disease trajectory, and intervention testing to support patients and their families in managing symptoms related to chronic disease, including cancer and HIV.
Education
University of Utah College of Nursing, Salt Lake City, Utah
Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing
Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, Houston, Texas
Master of Science in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner Oncology Focus
New York University College of Nursing, New York, New York
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
University of Utah College of Nursing, Salt Lake City, Utah
Postdoctoral Fellowship - NIH/NRSA/NINR Training Grant T32NR013456
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Division of Internal Medicine Department of Symptom Research, Houston, Texas
Postdoctoral Fellowship - Hawn Foundation for Pain and Symptom Research
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Biomedical Informatics, Houston, Texas
Post-Master’s Certificate Biomedical Informatics
Clinical/Research Focus
Dr. Whisenant’s program of research focuses on improving the lives of people living with chronic disease, including studying variations in chronic disease-related symptom burden, symptom-related communication between clinicians and patients, and the development of innovative interventions for supporting patients and their families in managing symptoms. She has a unique interest in addressing symptom burden in patients and their caregivers and uses qualitative and quantitative approaches. Her work includes developing and testing mobile and digital technologies for capturing the symptom experience and delivering just-in-time symptom management interventions that address health disparities and target diverse patient populations, including underserved and under-resourced individuals. Her research aligns with value-based and patient-centered care principles from disease prevention through the disease survivorship trajectory.
Publications
- Yoga for Patients Undergoing Thoracic Radiotherapy and Their Family Caregivers: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial
- The Effect of a Digital Health Coaching Program on Patient-Reported and Healthcare Utilization Outcomes of Women With Breast Cancer
- Individual patient-reported symptom items discriminate imaging-graded dysphagia in head and neck cancer patients treated with radiotherapy: secondary analysis of pooled prospective studies
- Feasibility, acceptability, and experienced benefits of kind acts and gratitude letter interventions among collectivist and individualist culture cancer patients and caregivers: A pilot study
- Pain Acceptance in Chronic Postoperative Pain: Concept Analysis
