Afaf Meleis
PhD, DrPS(Hons), FAAN
Professor Afaf Meleis was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing in 2006 for her outstanding contribution to academic achievement in the fields of nursing theory, women’s health and global health.
Afaf has had a major impact on nursing theory, women’s health and on global issues of relevance to health care in developing countries. A prominent medical sociologist for over 40 years, her work has influenced the thinking and behaviour of nurses worldwide. Her career has spanned both academic and administrative positions.
Today, Afaf is Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and Professor of Nursing and Sociology. This follows her 34-year tenure at the University of California, San Francisco where she was professor in the Department of Community Health Systems in the School of Nursing and an associate in nursing for the Nursing Service. Her teaching focus is on the structure and organisation of nursing knowledge, patient transitions, as well as health and international nursing. Over the years she has mentored hundreds of students, clinicians and researchers from around the world.
She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; a member of the Institute of Medicine; Trustee of the National Health Museum; and a board member of the Global Health Council and CARE, a global intervention group. She is also Counsel General of ICOWHI, the International Council on Women’s Health Issues (www.icowhi.org/index.cfm), an international non-profit association dedicated to the goal of promoting health, health care, and the wellbeing of women throughout the world through participation, empowerment, advocacy, education and research.
Her scholarship is strongly centred on global health and the theoretical development of the nursing discipline. She is the author of more than 150 articles in social sciences, nursing and medical journals and wrote the award-winning ‘Theoretical nursing: development and progress’ (1985), now in its fourth edition, which has become required reading for nurse education programmes in many countries.
Her work on theory development and testing has provided frameworks for knowledge generation in education, research and practice. She places the patient at the centre of health care and advocates a strong identity to the discipline of nursing by defining its perspective, domain of practice and nursing outcomes. Her belief is that nurse-patient interactions are organised around the different processes that nurses use to enhance or bring about health. Afaf’s work has made it easier for nurses to opt for theories that are meaningful to them and their patients, illustrating how practising nurses can select the most appropriate theory to guide their clinical decision-making and interventions.
Afaf is a sought-after keynote speaker at national and international conferences on women’s health and development, and is also renowned for her expertise on the topics of disparities in health care and international health. She is regularly asked to consult on women’s health research and doctoral education. Her work is highly pertinent to contemporary nursing issues in the UK today, encompassing cross-cultural nursing care for patients and on the specific needs of women from different cultures.
Her contribution to nursing, through her writings on theory development and testing, her research into women’s health in developing countries, and her work on global health have helped to inform generations of nurses around the world. She is a powerful advocate of the vital role nurses can play in improving global health by focusing on the strengths that women can bring to the health and wellbeing of families and communities.