Associate Professor Wang Wenru named American Academy of Nursing Fellow

A/Prof Wang promotes the health and well-being of patients with heart disease through her research on cardiovascular health and cardiac rehabilitation.

Associate Professor Wang Wenru, faculty member from the National University of Singapore’s Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (NUS Nursing), has been selected to receive one of the highest honours in the nursing profession globally.

A/Prof Wang is named a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) and will be inducted into the AAN during its annual meeting and conference, taking place virtually in October.

A/Prof Wang is one of the 230 nursing leaders worldwide selected as Fellows by the Academy in 2020, and the only one from Singapore receiving this prestigious honour. She joins a distinguished community of more than 2,700 global nursing leaders recognised by their colleagues for their expertise and contributions to the profession and healthcare.

AAN Fellows are chosen from among the best nursing leaders in education, management, practice and research. Selection is based on presentation of evidence of their work to improve nursing practice and health policy, and their capacity to make contributions in the future. The Fellows are selected by a committee of elected Fellows through a competitive, rigorous process from a pool of hundreds of applicants, and each nominee must be sponsored by two current Academy Fellows.

A/Prof Wang promotes the health and well-being of patients with heart disease through her research on cardiovascular health and cardiac rehabilitation. Her work is grounded in designing new and innovative interventions – such as mobile health and telemedicine – to deliver health promotion and secondary prevention to patients.  

She has investigated the needs, health-related quality of life, psychological well-being and other associated factors pertaining to patients and their family members, and based on her findings, has developed and evaluated more than 40 programmes, including home-based cardiac rehabilitation programmes relevant and sensitive to the Asian culture. These home-based programmes have been implemented in some hospitals locally and helped patients with heart diseases recover at home. Over the years, her research focus has expanded to the management of other chronic diseases such as diabetes, leading to the development and implementation of innovative self-management interventions to improve the quality of care for patients with diabetes.

A/Prof Wang is currently studying a new model of care in delivering home-based cardiac rehabilitation using mobile health and wireless sensor technologies. She is also working with a multi-disciplinary research team from the United States, Thailand and Cambodia to translate and validate her interventions in these countries.

As convenor of the Chronic Illness and Long-term Care Research programme at NUS Nursing, A/Prof Wang also spends time mentoring junior faculty and supervising PhD students.

“Induction as an American Academy of Nursing Fellow is a distinct honour and recognition of A/Prof Wang’s contribution to nursing research and innovation. She has made an impact in supporting healthcare organisations to transfer their model of care towards one that is home-based and patient-centric. This alternative is now seen as increasingly valuable and relevant as the coronavirus pandemic leads to widespread disruption and discontinuation of cardiac rehabilitation programmes and other social opportunities for cardiovascular disease patients,” said Professor Emily Ang, Head of NUS Nursing.

She added that A/Prof’s Wang’s induction is an honour for the university and a validation that NUS Nursing’s students are being mentored by some of the best faculty in the world.

“It is a tremendous honour to be counted among the distinguished nurses named Fellows by the AAN. I think of it more as leveraging on the recognition to further drive, establish and 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. I am hopeful the recognition will further my work to bolster nursing practice transformation in Singapore as well as strengthen nursing and healthcare delivery nationally, enhancing the quality of health and nursing care across the life continuum.”

“I am also proud to share our Singapore nursing practice with the Academy and join with other Fellows to promote cardiac nursing and quality care for patients,” A/Prof Wang said.