Personal information
Biography
She graduated with a BSN at the Adventist University of the Philippines, an MSN and a Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh, and a JD (law) at Duquesne University. She found out that collaborating with others in personal and professional components of life is a must. Anticipating or foreseeing what is ahead of the journey is helpful. Listening is mandatory, both personally and professionally because only when listening can she gather insights at all levels of communication, and act as the message and as a messenger. In managing, she is agile and empowered from within with resilience and without social support making her nimble, innovative, and creative.
Her Family Law practice in Collaborative Law relates to a research topic – caring for women experiencing abuse and violence. She compared the effectiveness of online with face-to-face HELP (Health, Education on safety and Legal rights and Privileges) intervention for women experiencing Intimate Partner Violence. Survivors showed signs of depression, stress, lack of social support, reduced immune function, and behavioral manifestations of anxiety, depression, and drug use that spill over and exacerbate into later life as older adults. The 2020 and 2021 research publications in HEARTS (Health, Experience of Abuse, Resilience, Technology use, and Social support) covered 3 research venues (Pittsburgh, PA, US, Manila, and Cebu City, Philippines). Findings showed that resilience had a significant moderating effect between abuse and anxiety and abuse and pain interference.
She contributes to science, law, and nursing productively. Between 2016 and 2017, during a Fulbright Scholarship in Amman, Jordan at the University of Jordan, she studied the effects of abuse on the health and human rights of women seeking protection from abuse. Furthermore, as a Visiting Scholar in Manila and Cebu City, Philippines saw how abuse, neglect, and disrespect eroded the physical, mental, and spiritual health of older adults spilling over their safety and wellbeing. They examined the literature, policy, and practice among midlife and older women and found that there is a preponderance of literature evidence that abuse is a risk factor for preclinical cardiovascular disease. Moreover, abuse and neglect in older adults correlate with their health statuses such as sleep disturbance, pain, depression, and anxiety. Violence is a hidden pandemic behind a pandemic. She received numerous honors and awards. For example, in 2016, she received the American Nurses Association (ANA) Jessie M. Scott Award. This annual award is given to a nurse who integrates education, research, and practice in his/her profession. In 2016, she received the Sigma Theta Tau (STTI) Gerontological Nursing Leadership Academy Mentor Award. In 2017, the Visiting Scientist Research Award from the Philippine Council on Health Research and Development. In 2020, she received the ANA Hall of Fame Award, bestowed on a nurse who exemplifies leadership, mentorship, and research.
As a teacher, she inspires students through role modeling, mentoring, and integrating research into courses. She understands that critical thinking is an empowering skill that benefits students throughout their education and leadership. She engages students in blended and flipped learning in classes. She co-authored a research project done at the University of Jordan headed by Dr. Halasa. In comparing student achievement in traditional learning with a combination of blended and flipped learning, research shows that outcomes are consistent of high quality when blended and flipped learning is used.
As a lawyer, she considers it important that clients learn to critically think, recognize a biased statement, or spot a flawed argument, especially with their own verbal and written communication. She empowers them to critique what they see and read, compare, and contrast facts and opinions in verbal or written communications. As a nurse, she enhances problem-finding, problem-solving, and decision-making skills and models these attributes in the nurse-patient relationship. She mentors with enthusiasm, empathy, accessibility, and accommodation, recognizing that critical thinking and building healthy communications and relationships are developed and practiced when parties are engaged in creating safe spaces for diverse voices to be heard without judgment.
As a community volunteer and leader, she remains current with the state of art and science in technological innovations, law, and nursing. She co-authored with a group of faculty researchers an article on precision health. Precision health utilizes big data sets and refers to personalized healthcare based on a person’s unique characteristics, genetic, genomic, or omics composition along with lifestyle, social, economic, cultural, spiritual, and environmental influences to achieve optimal health. She facilitates a topic on racism and ethnicity, a system of structuring opportunity, and assigning person's value
Activities
Employment (2)
Education and qualifications (4)
Professional activities (2)
Funding (2)
RO1 NR02 108
Works (45)
2-s2.0-84883487384
2-s2.0-84871833222
2-s2.0-84859154065
2-s2.0-83455164975
2-s2.0-80053054487
2-s2.0-45549108292
2-s2.0-42649093483
2-s2.0-34250762614
2-s2.0-34147175053
ISBN 978-0-8036-2185-5
2-s2.0-33749340001
2-s2.0-22544470641
2-s2.0-0036245764
2-s2.0-0035214851
2-s2.0-0033760223
2-s2.0-0030636255
2-s2.0-0031137029
2-s2.0-0031134494
2-s2.0-0002753839
2-s2.0-0030100341
2-s2.0-0029300108
2-s2.0-0029303407
2-s2.0-0024642645
2-s2.0-0024021813
2-s2.0-0019643232
2-s2.0-0018339207
2-s2.0-0017952580