Dr. Rachel Jones, Associate Professor at the Rutgers College of Nursing, will be inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing on Nov. 13, 2010, in Washington, D.C.  The induction will take place during the Academy’s 37th Annual Meeting and Conference, at which Dr. Jones will become eligible to use the credentials FAAN.

The Academy is comprised of about 1600 fellows representing the nation’s top researchers, policymakers, scholars, executives and practitioners in nursing.   With over 2.6 million registered nurses in the U.S., selection is a high honor.  The FAAN will be a special addition to Dr. Jones’ achievement of honors that include: the Nurse Educator of the New York Times Tribute to Nurses award (2007); the Esteemed Woman in the Field of Women and HIV/AIDS award from the N.J. Women and AIDS Network (2009); the Zonta Club of Essex County Woman of the Year, Newark, NJ (2008); Lester Z. Lieberman Humanism in Healthcare Award, Healthcare Foundation of NJ (2010); and the Rutgers Newark Chancellor’s Community Engagement and Research award (2007).

Part of the basis for choosing fellows is the extent that nominees influence health policy and health care delivery in nursing to the benefit of people in this country and internationally. Dr. Jones was chosen for her innovation in communicating HIV risk reduction strategies to young urban women via the integration of two popular mediums, the soap opera and the cell phone.  Dr. Jones and a team of students, actors, IT specialists and a filmmaker created a mini-series in streaming video to cell phones. They created a pilot video, “A Story about Toni, Mike, and Valerie,” that is widely in demand by public health departments and clinicians.

Dr. Jones and her team are now testing a 12-episode soap opera series, “Love, Sex, and Choices” created by Jones and her team. Women participating in a Randomized Controlled Trial funded by NIH, receive one episode per week to their cell phones. Dr. Jones feels entertainment education such as a soap opera video intervention, “communicates HIV risk reduction through women’s identification and emotional involvement with the story characters and realistic plots.”  In the ongoing quest for best practices the study may unearth discoveries for accessing hard to reach populations, reinforcing or promoting positive behavior and treatment fidelity.  It may also lead to improving message development and filming for the small screen.

Dr. Jones holds a PhD in Nursing Research and Theory Development from New York University, a MS in Family Primary Care from Pace University, and a BSN from Case Western Reserve University. Other clinical and research interests include urban women’s and men’s health, using mobile handheld technologies for public health applications, health promotion and the new media, Rogerian Nursing Science, and audio computer assisted self interview.

For additional information, or to arrange an interview with Dr. Jones, please contact Eleni Mavrogeorgis, Senior Executive Associate at emavro@rutgers.edu or at (973) 353-1876.

For more than 50 years, the Rutgers College of Nursing has been one of America’s premier institutions for nursing education. CON offers academic programs and training to more than 850 undergraduate and graduate nursing students.  There are 40 full-time faculty and nearly 50 part- time lecturers with expertise in nursing research and practice teaching at CON.