McMaster’s order for two

Two McMaster medical professors have been named to the Order of Canada, the second highest civilian honour in Canada.

The two recipients, Dr. John Kelton, Dean of the DeGroote School of Medicine, and Alba DiCenso, PhD, a retired professor of nursing, have been recognized for their research, work and contributions to the growth in their respective fields at a national level.

“I was most delighted and very surprised. This is an honour that for me is important because people who I know who have received this honour are many people I look up to quite a bit,” said Kelton, who began attending McMaster after reading their publications and learning about the evidence-based approach while he was training in hematology at Duke University in North Carolina. Kelton has a strong love for the McMaster and Hamilton communities and is very optimistic and excited about McMaster’s Health Science and Medicine faculties’ continued advancements in research and growing national influence.

“I would like to recognize the role of McMaster University and Hamilton as a magnet for innovation,” said Kelton.

Kelton has previously been recognized at the international level, through the American Association of Blood Banks’ Emily Cooley award, and the Karl Landsteiner Award, Germany’s highest honour for transfusion medicine. Unlike many other medical school deans, he is still a practicing hematologist, which he believes keeps him grounded and in touch with the needs of patients today.

DiCenso began her studies with McMaster as an undergraduate student in 1970, and she recalls witnessing firsthand the growth of McMaster’s Faculty of Nursing, a period which she recalls as a “time of tremendous development and tremendous energy.” DiCenso would play a pivotal role in one of the faculty’s most important contributions to the field of nursing – evidence-based nursing, which emphasizes high-quality evidence to guide nursing practices, and trains nurses to identify the most credible research to utilize in patient care. DiCenso developed several groundbreaking research papers on the subject, and is the lead editor of evidence-based nursing textbooks that have contributed greatly to the integration of the method in Canada and the world.

DiCenso, along with her hometown of Welland, Ontario, was ecstatic about the news.

“I share this honour with my parents who came from Italy for a better life for their children; my internationally renowned mentors; my talented research colleagues; my fellow nurses committed to applying best evidence to their practice, and to my unfailingly supportive family,” DiCenso said.

Kelton and DiCenso will formerly receive their awards during a special ceremony that will be held in Rideau Hall in Ottawa sometime later this year.