Patricia Donohue-Porter, Ph.D., Selected for New York Academy of Medicine Fellowship

“I’ve always been interested in the education aspect of healthcare, even before my academic career at Adelphi University.”—Patricia Donohue-Porter, Ph.D.

“I believe in a humanistic approach to the healthcare system,” said Patricia Donohue-Porter, Ph.D., director of the College of Nursing and Public Health Ph.D. program at Adelphi University. It’s an approach, she said, that begins with education.

“I’ve always been interested in the education aspect of healthcare, even before my academic career at Adelphi University,” said Dr. Donohue-Porter, who was one of 82 Fellows inducted at New York Academy of Medicine’s (NYAM) 169th annual meeting on November 3, 2016, in New York City.

In 1986, Dr. Donohue-Porter was among the first group of health professionals to receive certification from the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators—the standard of excellence for the delivery of quality diabetes education—while she conducted research focused on diabetes management.

Dr. Donohue-Porter now focuses on nursing management and improving medication safety. Her exemplary research and pedagogical work in these areas was rewarded with her selection as a distinguished Fellow by the Academy.

“Academy Fellows are our backbone; they were basically the people who made up the Academy when it was founded in 1847,” said Donna Fingerhut, director, Office of Trustee and Fellowship Affairs at NYAM.

Fingerhut emphasized the multidisciplinary makeup of NYAM, noting the importance of giving voice to a range of perspectives and opinions.

“Today, our Fellows include more than 2,000 distinguished experts across professions affecting health–from physicians and social workers to architects and economists,” she said. “This elite group is tasked with helping move forward our mission of advancing solutions that promote the health and well-being of people in cities worldwide, particularly across our priority areas, which include healthy aging, prevention and eliminating health disparities.”

Dr. Donohue-Porter said she has a special affinity for NYAM’s multidisciplinary approach.

“It’s a great honor to be selected by my peers and inducted as a New York Academy of Medicine Fellow,” she said. “I also believe it helps secure an important bond between the Ph.D. program at the College of Nursing and Public Health and NYAM. We’re developing the leaders who will be challenged with the task of ensuring healthy cities and better lives, including access to care. The College and NYAM’s missions are very much aligned.” She added, “NYAM is respectful of all of the connections that can be made when we think about advancing health, including the humanities. To ensure our healthcare system is as humanistic as possible, it’s important that our future leaders are encouraged to study the humanities. The humanities play a definite role in helping us address areas like healthy aging and health disparities, which are both College of Nursing and Public Health and NYAM priorities.”

As part of her NYAM fellowship, Dr. Donohue-Porter will work to help develop and support future multidisciplinary and nursing-related program and events, with emphases on transforming nursing education and addressing the role of cognitive load–how much is too much–in reducing medication errors.