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Suzanne Marmo

Associate Professor & Program Director, MSW program, Fairfield University
Chapter Member: Connecticut SSN
Areas of Expertise:

About Suzanne

Marmo is an Assistant Professor at Sacred Heart University School of Social Work. Marmo is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and is certified as a Hospice and Palliative Care Social Worker. Her clinical expertise includes working with older adults, as well as those experiencing chronic illness, loss, grief and bereavement. Marmo's research and scholarly interests are in end-of-life policy and political advocacy, disparities in palliative care and hospice, social determinants of health and the role of social work in health care organizations. Marmo serves as a board member on the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN).

Contributions

Limiting Hospital Visitations During COVID Not in Patients’ Best Interests

  • Kerry Milner
  • Shannon R. Lane

Publications

"Implementation and Sustainment Strategies for Open Visitation in the Intensive Care Unit: A Multicentre Qualitative Study" (with Kerry Milner and Susan Goncalves). Multicenter Study (2020).

Documents barriers and strategies for implementing and sustaining open visitation in adult intensive care units in the United States experienced by nursing leadership.

"Social Justice, Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction for Palliative Care Social Workers" (with Manoj Pardasani and David Vincent). Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance 45, no. 3 (2021): 184-199.

Finds that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between an organization that establishes a norm of social justice and organizational commitment, this in turn, makes palliative care social workers less likely to want to leave their jobs.

"Senior Centers and LGBTQ Participants: Engaging Older Adults Virtually in a Pandemic" (with Manoj Pardasani and David Vincent). Journal of Gerontological Social Work 64, no. 8 (2021): 864-884.

Evaluates the experiences of 113 LGBT senior center participants after the Coronavirus pandemic closed their senior center. Reports a relatively easy adaptation to technology, satisfaction with virtual senior center programming, social support, and a stable sense of engagement with their peers.

"Social Justice and Advanced Cancer Patients: an Analysis of Key Policies" Journal of Policy Practice and Research (2020).

Examines key aspects of two policies fundamental to work with terminal cancer patients: the Medicare Hospice Benefit and Medicare policy in palliative care. Discuses how end-of-life care, affected by these policies, should address physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering for all vulnerable groups.

"Implementation and Sustainment Strategies for Open Visitation in the Intensive Care Unit: A Multicentre Qualitative Study" (with Kerry A.Milner and Susan Goncalves). Intensive and Critical Care Nursing 62 (2021).

Documents barriers and strategies for implementing and sustaining open visitation in adult intensive care units in the United States experienced by nursing leadership.

"Social Workers’ Perceptions of Job Satisfaction, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, and Organizational Leadership" (with Cathy Berkman). Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care 14, no. 1 (2018).

Supports previous findings that leadership style of the hospice director and relationships with hospice colleagues are important for hospice social workers’ job satisfaction. Discusses how such low-cost modifications to the hospice work environment, albeit not simple, may improve job satisfaction of hospice social workers.

"Recommendations for Hospice Care to Terminally Ill Cancer Patients: A Phenomenological Study of Oncologists' Experiences" Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care 10, no. 2 (2014): 149-169 .

Understands oncologists' experiences with hospice care as an end-of-life treatment choice for terminally ill cancer patients. Shows how four themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) eelings of discomfort and relief, (b) being different from others, (c) experience with nonhospice patients, (d) factors influencing the decision to recommend hospice.