NUS Nursing faculty member receives prestigious fellowship

Associate Professor Wang Wenru is the only person from Singapore this year to be named a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, one of the nursing profession's highest honours. PHOTO: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE'S ALICE LEE CENTRE FOR NURSIN
Associate Professor Wang Wenru is the only person from Singapore this year to be named a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, one of the nursing profession's highest honours. PHOTO: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE'S ALICE LEE CENTRE FOR NURSING STUDIES

A faculty member from the National University of Singapore's Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (NUS Nursing) has been named a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), one of the highest honours in the nursing profession globally.

Associate Professor Wang Wenru is the only person from Singapore to receive the fellowship this year. A total of 230 nursing leaders worldwide were selected by the AAN.

Based in Washington, DC, the AAN has more than 2,700 fellows who are the nursing field's most accomplished leaders in education, management, practice and research.

The fellows are selected based on their abilities in improving nursing practices and health policies, and in making future contributions.

Prof Wang will be inducted into the AAN during its annual meeting and conference next month.

The 52-year-old Chinese national has been a faculty member at NUS Nursing since 2012.

She has more than 28 years of experience as a nurse, educator and researcher. Her research is focused on chronic diseases, with an emphasis on heart disease.

Prof Wang is currently studying a new model of care where cardiac rehabilitation is carried out in patients' homes through mobile devices and wireless sensors.

This new model will build on a four-week home rehabilitation programme she helped design in 2015, where cardiac patients refer to a manual and a DVD while going through their rehab. The programme, which has been updated over the years, is being used in the National University Hospital.

As convenor of the Chronic Illness and Long-term Care Research programme at NUS Nursing, Prof Wang mentors junior faculty members and supervises PhD students.

"I think of (the fellowship) more as leveraging the recognition to further expand my collaboration with multi-disciplinary teams of researchers to develop evidence-based, patient-centric and innovative interventions to address the complex public healthcare needs in Singapore," said Prof Wang.

NUS Nursing's head, Professor Emily Ang, said Prof Wang has made an impact by supporting healthcare organisations in creating home-based models of care as the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted cardiac rehabilitation programmes.

Past fellowship recipients from Singapore were: in 2012, Dr Pauline Tan, who served as the Ministry of Health's chief nursing officer from 2007 to 2014; and in 2013, Professor Sally Chan, who is currently pro vice-chancellor of the University of Newcastle's Singapore campus.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 15, 2020, with the headline NUS Nursing faculty member receives prestigious fellowship. Subscribe