BROOKLYN — “Ill health hampers a nation’s social and economic development by triggering a vicious cycle of unsustainable resource use that undermines its economic stability.”
So explains Dr. Patricia Cholewka, RN, a professor of nursing at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), who spent part of last year in Lithuania on a Fulbright Scholar grant observing and studying the application of information technology (IT) to nursing education and clinical practice.
“As a result of the spread of HIV/AIDS, for example, a national economy is hampered in its development efforts because it is obliged to direct most of its resources toward the treatment of disease instead of toward education or the building/maintenance of infrastructure,” she adds.
Dr. Cholewka co-edited a new book, Health Capital and Sustainable Socioeconomic Development (CRC Press), which highlights an unmet need in the marketplace. “What we’ve tried to do,” states Dr. Cholewka, “is show how closely related issues of development, environment, and health are.”
The book emphasizes how population health impacts on socioeconomic viability and explains the need for improving healthcare management policy. A nation achieves a state of well-being when the quality of its social, economic, and political viability permits it to function in a sustainable, beneficial manner for all.
According to the publisher, the book is targeted to “all those interested in their own good health status, students of international health, practicing professionals of various disciplines, public health administrators and those who are just curious about how global health can affect their own well-being.”
Technology plays a major role in the health of our global community, notes Dr. Cholewka, who will be a featured speaker at the City University of New York Information Technology (IT) conference on December 5 at John Jay College. She will share City Tech’s efforts to build nursing students’ knowledge (human capital) by using an IT nursing curriculum similar to the technologies they will encounter in clinical settings.
She and her nursing department colleagues are integrating newer information technologies in a Clinical Simulation Laboratory (CSL) for students. There, students become proficient in using high-tech patient simulators, wireless Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and an online Patient Record System (PRS).
“Let’s face it — the global healthcare industry is undergoing dynamic changes from system reorganization to using advanced IT across the entire spectrum of healthcare delivery,” Dr. Cholewka adds. “The healthcare workforce must be educated in new ways to meet clinical and regulatory challenges for providing safe, quality patient care.
According to her, not only will the critical thinking skills students gain from guided care scenarios in the CSL enhance their competency, increasing patient safety and decreasing medication errors, but they will positively impact scores on nursing licensing exams.
Dr. Cholewka’s most recent IT research was conducted during the six months she spent in 2007 at Vilnius University. “My Fulbright research was a natural follow-up to my doctoral studies during the nineties, when I traveled to Lithuania several times to study the Soviet-imposed healthcare system,” she says. “Being of Lithuanian ancestry,” she adds, “I wanted to play a part in helping to improve the quality of life of the Lithuanian people as they struggled to re-enter the global community.”
At present, Dr.Cholewka is an exchange officer for the International Faculty Exchange Program that will be initiated in Spring 2009 between the faculty of nursing at Kaunas University of Medicine at Kaunas, Lithuania, and the Department of Nursing at City Tech. Its purpose is to expand scholarly ties, facilitate academic cooperation, and promote mutual understanding in the areas of nursing education and research.
Dr. Cholewka was chosen to receive a Fulbright, awarded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, on the basis of her academic achievements. These include a master’s degree in public administration from New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, a master of arts in nursing informatics from NYU College of Nursing and a doctorate in international education development from Teachers College, Columbia University. She also has extensive international travel experience and has demonstrated leadership in her profession.
New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York is the largest public college of technology in New York State. The College enrolls more than 14,000 students in 60 baccalaureate, associate, and specialized certificate programs. Another 15,000 students enroll annually in adult education and workforce development programs, many of which lead to licensure and certification. Located at 300 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, City Tech is at the MetroTech Center academic and commercial complex, convenient to public transportation.
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© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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