Caring for cancer survivors

When Dr. Noël Arring was 20, she moved from her Michigan home to the southern U.S., where a curiosity about people’s beliefs and a desire to serve her community led to a bachelor’s degree in religion from University of Georgia. 

The same reasons led her to study nursing just a few years later. 

“My grandmama was also a nurse, so it was always in the back of my mind,” she says. 

“Having a religion degree actually was really helpful for my nursing career because it helped me understand some of the context with which my patients were navigating choices.” 

Arring has an associate degree in nursing from Community College of Southern Nevada, a doctor of nursing practice degree in public health nurse leadership from University of Massachusetts and a PhD in nursing from Oregon Health & Science University. 

She has worked for more than two decades in nursing research and leadership, with a focus on cancer survivorship. 

In December 2025, she joined the College of Nursing as an associate professor, moving to Winnipeg with her wife and two children from Tennessee. 

“It’s been a really good fit for our family, and I’m proud of the fact that we navigated the cold weather pretty well,” she says.   

Arring was partly drawn to UM after working with Dr. Lynda Balneaves [B.Sc./90, BN/94, MN/96], associate dean (research) at the College of Nursing, through the Society of Integrative Oncology, an international cancer research group. In 2025, they published a paper together in the Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine and released a series of webinars on the role of nursing in integrative oncology including the use of medical cannabis in cancer care.   

Arring’s research centres mostly around interventions to help cancer survivors manage their symptoms, with a primary focus on menopausal symptoms in female cancer survivors. 

Last year, she published a paper with the online medical journal JAMA Network on self-administered hypnosis for hot flashes. 

“It reduces hot flashes about 70 per cent without any real side effects,” she notes. 

Her current projects include the use of evolving technologies. 

One allows patients who are fatigued or can’t get outside because of weather or the severity of their illness to experience nature through virtual reality. 

“I have promising data that shows that the exposure to nature, even using virtual reality, improves cognition and also cancer-related fatigue,” she says. 

Arring has also developed an app that uses cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce insomnia in cancer survivors. 

“We’ve been working on this app for about six years, and we’re ready to conduct a large randomized control trial next year.” 

She is also working on a needs assessment for Manitoba’s 2SLGBTQ+ community and their cancer survivorship needs. 

“When I first came here, I was looking for data in that space and I found a little Canada wide, but almost nothing about Manitoba specifically.” 

Ultimately, Arring says she’s committed her life to helping cancer survivors live their life to the fullest. 

“There are a lot of different opportunities for us to do that post-treatment, but I also think there’s an opportunity for us to start interventions before and during their cancer treatment so we can try to prevent some of the symptoms from developing.”