Dr Patricia O'Regan is a nurse lecturer at the Catherine MC Auley School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork where she has worked since 2002. Patricia trained as a general nurse in London and has since worked and studied both in the UK and Ireland. Patricia’s clinical background is in medicine and oncology. After specialising in oncology nursing she worked in this area for over eight years. Patricia completed her PhD in 2014 with a study titled - "Cancer related fatigue and self-care, while undergoing chemotherapy: patient's perspectives". Patricia completed her BNS at Dublin City University and her MSC in 2003 at University College Cork. Patricia also has a number of diplomas in the areas of education, oncology, counselling and complementary therapies. Patricia teaches a number of modules including oncology to undergraduate and post-graduate, palliative care, research and communications. Patricia is the Co-Ordinator of the Post Graduate Diplome in Oncology nursing at UCC. She is also a member of the "Enhancing Cancer Awareness and Survivorship" (ECASP) Research group.

I have gained an amount of theoretical and clinical experience in the area of oncology over the last fifteen years. This experience has enhanced my desire to gain further knowledge in the speciality of cancer which I am now pursuing through studying my area of interest to PhD level. This experience has been gained through a broad and considerable range of activities including working in the speciality of oncology in a number of settings, participating in specialised courses, teaching the subject area, facilitating cancer support groups, offering cancer patients complementary therapies, and publishing a number of related papers and book chapter. This experience has also enabled me gain a number of links in the clinical, academic and greater cancer population spheres including patient support networks. I have for a number of years been very interested in the subject of fatigue due to both the severity of its nature, the negative impact it has on cancer patients lives and due to the fact it is a symptom with minimum understanding and management strategies. I believe my completed thesis could both greatly aid the understanding of the topic. It is also envisaged that this research will generate data that will enable the development of a much needed standardised tool for fatigue management to be used nationally. My future research interests include expanding the area of fatigue, symptom management, complementary therapies, quality of life and psychological care of cancer patients. My career plans is to develop a strong research and academic profile in the area of oncological nursing through collaborative work with other academic and clinical experts in the area of oncology, and publish and present this work frequently. I endeavour to publish a number of peer reviewed papers on the subject both in relation to the literature review and the research findings sections of my PhD study, in both phase one and phase two. I have commenced publishing and have published two peer rev