Biography
Joan Edwards was appointed Director of the Center for Global Nursing Scholarship (CGNS) in Fall, 2008. Formal approval for the Center from the Texas Woman’s University (TWU) Board of Regents was received in June 2012. Joan is responsible for oversight and coordination of global nursing scholarship activities involving alumni, nursing faculty, students from all three campuses of Texas Woman’s University. In addition to Edwards’ involvement with CGNS, her teaching responsibilities include undergraduate course manager for Women’s Health and Family Roles and also co-faculty for the graduate nursing course, Global Citizenship.
Prior to accepting a full time nursing faculty position at TWU in 2002, Dr. Edwards was employed as a perinatal clinical nurse specialist with oversight of perinatal, neonatal, pediatrics and women’s services. She is certified in high-risk perinatal nursing. Dr. Edwards has been professionally affiliated with the specialty nursing organization, AWHONN (Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses), for most of her nursing career, serving as national President in 2006.
Throughout her professional career, Dr. Edwards has had opportunity to practice globally. She spent four years in the country of Indonesia as a medical missionary, teaching in a nursing program located in the jungles of Kalimantan. She returned to Indonesia in 2011-2012 under the auspices of a Fulbright scholarship. In collaboration with the Indonesian government, she conducted a pilot study of 7 diploma and baccalaureate, nursing programs comparing nursing curricula currently utilized in Indonesia with Standard III (nursing curriculum) of the 2009 World Health Organization Global Standards for Initial Nursing and Midwifery Education. A major outcome of this study was supportive criteria within the WHO document to finally achieve passage of the first Nurse Practice Act for the country of Indonesia in 2014.
Edwards has also led Women's and Neonatal Health delegations to China in 2008 and 2009 for the United States Government People to People Ambassadorship Program. Delegates learned about women's and neonatal health care in China along with the impact of the nursing shortage within the country of China
Industry Expertise (3)
Health Care - Providers
Education/Learning
Research
Areas of Expertise (10)
Nursing
Nursing Administration
Global Health
University Teaching
Perinatal Outcomes
Capacity Building
Nursing Education
International Development
Mentoring
Maternal Health Care
Accomplishments (5)
Fellow of the American Academy of Nurses (professional)
2015-10-17
Granted by the American Academy of Nurses.
West Aurora High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Honor (professional)
2015-04-17
Aurora, Illinois
Redbud Award – Outstanding Student Organization Advisor – TNSA – TWU (personal)
2012-2013
Redbud Award – Outstanding Faculty - TWU (personal)
2012-2013
Emma Josephine Loffelholz McMorris RN Spirituality Award (professional)
2010-01-01
Award by the the Institute for Spirituality and Health.
Education (3)
University of Texas: Ph.D., Nursing 2012
University of Washington: M.N., Nursing 1991
University of Illinois: B.S.N., Nursing
Affiliations (4)
- Association of Women’s Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
- American Academy of Nurses
- ANA (American Nurses Association)
- STTI (Sigma Theta Tau International)
Media Appearances (1)
Three Houston faculty members named national nursing fellows
Texas Woman's University Marketing and Communication online
2015-08-07
Joan Edwards, Ph.D., RNC, CNS, a TWU associate nursing professor, who has a long history of encouraging nurses and nursing students to think and act globally ...
Articles (4)
A Cultural Immersion Experience in Indonesia for U.S. Nursing Students
Nursing for Womens Health
2015 Cultural immersion experiences as part of the education of health care professionals are important as our global focus expands through technology, natural disasters, pandemics, wars and the mobility of the world population. This is the story of a recent cultural immersion experience to Indonesia by U.S. nursing students.
An Update on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity in the United States
Nursing for Women's Health
2013 Significant strides have been made in recent years to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality rates around the world. But in the United States, maternal mortality rates have increased from 6.6/100,000 live births in the 1980s and 1990s to somewhere between 13.3/100,000 live births, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 21/100,000 live births, as reported by the World Health Organization.
Achieving Millennium Development Goal 5, the Improvement of Maternal Health
Journal of Obstetric Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing
2010 The purpose of this article is to describe the progress made toward the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 5, the improvement of maternal health. Maternal mortality rates (MMR) remain high globally, and in the United States there have been recent increases in MMR. Interventions to improve global maternal health are described. Nurses should be aware of the enduring epidemic of global maternal mortality, advocate for childbearing women, and contribute to implementing effective interventions to reduce maternal mortality.
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