On Their Side: Alumna Persists in Examination of Child Maltreatment, Education

As a registered nurse at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Hospital in the early 1990s, then later as an instructor in the child psychiatric unit of Taipei City Psychiatry Center, Jui-Ying Feng, DNS ‘03, RN, PNP, recognized the role of health care and social resource disparities in outcomes for abused children and their families. She has since carved a considerable path in child maltreatment research and education.

Since earning her DNS at the UB School of Nursing in 2003, Feng has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow and a visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y., with Professor Harriet Kitzman, PhD, RN, FAAN, in the internationally recognized Nurse Family Partnership (NFP), a program that has been successful in decreasing child maltreatment rates nationally and globally.

“The NFP program has demonstrated significant long-term positive effects on mothers and children of disadvantaged families by providing resources, health education and support to disadvantaged mothers starting during the pregnancy period,” Feng explains.

Currently an associate professor teaching disaster nursing and pediatric nursing courses, among others, at NCKU, Feng, in 2014, earned awards for Outstanding Teacher and Innovation and Achievements of Teaching. She guides students with encouragement and optimism, constructively reiterating that persistence is central to the success of nursing students pursuing a PhD.

Amid her teeming teaching schedule, Feng persists in her child maltreatment research endeavors. In 2012, she joined the Children Protection and Family Violence Protection and Intervention team at the National Taiwan University Children and Family Research Center, and she currently sits on the NCKU’s Human Research Ethics Committee. Feng’s co-authored article, “Prevalence of Different Forms of Child Maltreatment Among Taiwanese Adolescents: A Population-Based Study,” the first population-based national study in Taiwan using adolescents’ self-reports of violence experienced at home, was also recently accepted for publication.

Feng credits some of her success as an effective researcher and teacher to her educational foundation at the SON.

“I had the privilege of watching Dr. Jezewski interacting with and helping other faculty members to establish their academic pathway, organizing research activities, and establishing systems for grant applications and publications,” Feng recalls. “Dr. Jean Brown showed me what a scholar looks like, and Dr. Wu has trained me to be a rigorous researcher – the School is like a family to me.”

- SARAH GOLDTHRITE