Carol Tishelman

PhD - Registered Nurse

Carol Tishelman (CT) was born in and educated as a Registered Nurse at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, but has lived in Sweden for > 40 years. She received her PhD in 1993, became full Professor of Nursing at Karolinska Institutet (KI) in 2006, and now holds a Chair in Innovative Care, integrating health and social care. This position is at KI’s Dept of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, at the Centre for Healthcare Ethics. CT is also employed at the Stockholm Health Care Services (all regional non-acute hospital care).

CT has a long commitment to cancer and end-of-life (EoL) care research, including prevention, understanding symptoms and care delays, and improving cancer and EoL care by enhancing stakeholder experiences. CT was also instrumental in initiating support for biobehavioral health care research at KI, integrating the biological and experienced body. At present, most of CT’s research focuses on leading the transdisciplinary DöBra research program, combining EoL care, public health and health promotion, working with a wide range of community stakeholders and different disciplines.  CT has also conducted research on organization of nursing care and participated in largescale EU projects in this area.

CT was active in developing psychosocial oncology and cancer nursing research in Sweden and Europe, as a founding board member of the Nordic Society for Psychosocial Oncology, and with prior elected positions on the steering boards of the European Society for Psychosocial Oncology, the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care, and the European Society for Palliative Care. She has been affiliated with several international universities in England and Australia since 2004 and is active in international research initiatives, e.g. led one Swedish module of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership. She has received several awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award by the European Oncology Nursing Society and in 2021, KI’s Cultural Award, for valuable contributions to promote the meeting between culture and science, both in the cultural sphere at KI and in its interaction with society, through education and/or research in the DöBra research program. CT has over 160 published peer-reviewed articles in well-renowned international journals, as well as a wide variety of other publications, and has successfully supervised over 20 PhD students.