#ProudViscans: Nursing profs and students win top awards in a nat'l research tilt

The VSU College of Nursing (CoN) brought another pride to VSU after securing two of the highest awards during the Midyear Conference and Workshop of the Nurse Educators and Practitioners (NEPra) Guild, Incorporated.

Dr. Janet Alexis A. De los Santos, RN, Associate Professor and former Dean of CoN bagged the first spot under the Professional Category, while new graduates from the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) which include Mr. Vincent Kim E. Vergara and Mr. John Lhester M. Trinidad together with their thesis adviser Ms. Phoebe Lynn B. Calungsod earned the 2nd place under the Student Category during the research competition organized by NEPra Guild.

The winners received their awards in a virtual ceremony held on August 14, 2022, via Zoom.

With the mission of pursuing continuous and quality nursing education, research, and practice, the NEPra Guild was established by a group of nurse educators from Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Philippines, and Bandung, Indonesia on August 16, 2016.

This non-profit organization engages in promoting evidence-based practices, empowering professional nurses to lifelong learning, and advocating the continuous and quality improvement of the nursing profession.

The 2nd Midyear Conference and Workshop 2022 was participated by nursing professionals both from the academe and the industry including practitioners in hospitals and community health centers alongside nursing students from various universities here in the country.

This year, NEPra Guild’s Midyear Conference and Workshop was anchored on the theme, “Continuing the Saga of Quality Nursing Today and Beyond”. 

The winning papers

Dr. De los Santos and her research correspondent Mr. Leodoro J. Labrague conducted a cross-sectional study on the reality shock experienced by nurses employed in clinical settings. 

This same paper was published in the Journal of Nursing Management entitled “Transition Shock and Newly Graduated Nurses’ Job Outcomes and Select Patient Outcomes: A Cross-sectional Study”.

“We assessed the mechanisms by which the transition impacts their job outcomes such as stress and burnout and their turnover intent. This is a relevant issue in nursing administration as it has an implication for patient care. For instance, in our study we were able to find that transition shock is associated with a patient's adverse events, and missed nursing care,” the lead researcher said.

The Journal of Nursing Management is currently ranked 3rd in terms of citation score among nursing journals based on a 2022 report of Clarivate analytics with a 4.68 impact factor. 

Presently, the winning paper of Dr. De los Santos has been cited 39 times based on an analysis and monitoring of Google Scholar.

Meanwhile, the paper on “Transformational Leadership and Levels of Skills and Acquisition of Nurses in a Tertiary Government Hospital in Leyte” was presented by Ms. Calungsod on behalf of her thesis advisees namely Mr. Vergara and Mr. Trinidad who just completed their bachelor’s degree in August this year.

According to Ms. Calungsod, it was their first time making an entry for the NEPra Guild. She was proud of her thesis advisees’ achievement and she happily recalled the struggles of her advisees before their study was finally approved. 

“Since their study was something new, there were so many challenges they encountered long before their research was approved by the panel. Albeit the struggles, they didn’t give up. They were very diligent and they would always consult me from time to time about the progress of their paper,” the thesis adviser recalled. 

Both Dr. De los Santos and Ms. Calungsod stressed the importance of actively participating in the NEPra Guild.

Ms. Calungsod said that it helped her students in building up their confidence while also sharing important research insights from quality research outputs conducted by nursing students. 

For Dr. De los Santos, it gave them an avenue to learn from fellow nursing educators and practitioners to be responsive to the current needs of the nursing profession.

“Dissemination of results is like voicing out a scientific and evidence-based finding, which in the case of this paper, are vital issues that are present in the practice of nursing today. By presenting findings in forums like the NePra Guild, this promotes knowledge sharing and an opportunity to open possibilities of innovation and changes with an end goal of improving the practice in patient care,” Dr. De los Santos highlighted.

The author of the top paper also explained what it means to be in the field of nursing.

“Nursing as an applied science is beyond the walls of a science lab, it is people-centered. We value the relationships with people to make our research work successful. To other aspiring nurse researchers, it’s time we take the challenge of adding research work as an additional ‘nursing cap’ aside from the caring practice we do at the bedside. It only takes an enabling environment and the right people to mentor us to succeed in doing research. We can do a lot to improve the clients we serve – one step at a time,” the research professor concluded.

This year’s NEPra Guild Midyear Conference and Workshop included paper presenters from 6 universities, 1 general hospital, and 7 professional organizations with the special participation of 2 international groups namely the University of Hail in Saudi Arabia and the University Hospitals Dorset based in the United Kingdom.

Dr. De los Santos is now considered the most prolific nurse researcher in the university ranking 3rd among VSU faculty members in the 2023 report of the Ad Scientific Index. 

She has already brought several awards to VSU including a winning paper in an international conference held in November last year together with her co-researcher Dr. Joel Rey U. Acob and other colleagues from the Bukidnon State University (BukSU).

Recently, both Dr. De los Santos and Dr. Acob were grantees of the International Support and Collaboration for Continuing Excellence in Educational Development (I-SUCCEED) program of the Our Lady of Fatima University, Commission on Higher Education, and the Saxion University of Applied Sciences based in the Netherlands.

With prolific nurse researchers and the commendable performance of its graduates, the VSU College of Nursing has now become one of the leading nursing schools in Eastern Visayas.

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