DETROIT, December 2007 – Wayne State University College of Nursing Associate Professor April Hazard Vallerand, PhD, RN, FAAN, one of the nation’s leading experts in the field of pain management, has won a 2007 Davey Award – an international prize saluting the best work by small creative firms worldwide – for her role in a DVD produced during her presentation at the national American Society of Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) conference last March.

The award, presented by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, was for excellence in the category of interactive multimedia/education from the symposium, “Just When You Think You Have Achieved Successful Pain Control….” Dr. Vallerand provided the case study for the panel discussion on managing “breakthrough,” or sudden onset pain, joined by former ASPMN president Candace Coggins and physician Dr. Steven Stanos. The educational programming firm MediCom Worldwide, Inc., then hired an actress to play the part of the woman she was profiling in her talk and videotaped the program.

“By creating a broadcast-quality vignette based on Dr. Vallerand’s compelling patient experience, program participants were able to relate with a level of intensity I have not experienced before,” says MediCom president Joan Meyer. “Many in attendance were quite emotional by the end of the case study. There is no denying the passion and understanding of pain management Dr. Vallerand brought to the program made it worthy of the recognition it has received.”

Dr. Vallerand says the specific study was “a unique case, and one that’s very dear to my heart,” because the subject was a woman she had known personally prior to her illness. “I managed her pain from the time she was diagnosed with bile duct cancer until her death a little over a year later,” she explains. “It was an incredible experience, and I felt the need to share it. I had her permission to do that. And despite the fact that I frequently speak at conferences, this one made me more nervous than I have ever been because the case was so close to me.”

The award-winning video, entitled “Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatment of Breakthrough Pain: Breaking the Pain Cycle,” is available for viewing on the Web site Medscape (to be found at www.medscape.com/viewprogram/8253). What’s more, individual DVDs of the presentation will be inserted into issues of the American Society of Pain Management Nursing’s journal so that the members of the organization may have a copy of their own.

“It’s very exciting, very humbling, and it’s such a special case for me,” says Dr. Vallerand. “At the time of her death I gave the eulogy at her memorial service, and I promised her family that I would use the experience I gained from working with her to help other nurses help people in pain. So this video really allowed me to keep that promise. I certainly use her in many, many examples when I teach, but I think this is the culmination of everything.”