Dr. S.J. Nalini
Professor & Principal
Sri Ramachandra Faculty of Nursing, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (DU)
Dr. S.J. Nalini, M.Sc.(N), PhD, working as Professor & Principal, Sri Ramachandra Faculty of Nursing, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (DU), also heads the Unit of Nursing Research. She completed her UG and PG degree in Nursing from College of Nursing, Madras Medical College, Chennai in 1992 and 2002 respectively. She received her PhD in 2011 from Sri Ramachandra University for her work on evaluating effectiveness of educative supportive nursing interventions on clinical indicators and behavioral adherence among women with cervical abnormalities. She has served in various positions in both clinical and teaching institutions starting from a clinical nurse to Professor and Principal in a nursing college, with 28 years of experience in the field of nursing. She has organized about 50 events, national and international conferences, workshops, seminars, and extracurricular programs for the nurses and nursing students. She has presented 183 papers as resource person / invited speaker in national and international forums.
She and her team are completed an international collaborative project on Cross national understanding of terminal suffering among hospitalized South Asians with GATE grant funding. Three papers submitted from this work won bursary travel grant awards from Palliative care congress, UK. She received best research paper awards for the papers in 10th International nurses conference at Sri Ramachandra University, National conference at SRM college of Nursing organized by Nursing PhD Society in November 2016 and 1st best research paper award at 23rd and 27th National Nursing Research Society of India Conference at MGM Institute of Health Sciences, Navi Mumbai in 2019 and National Institute of Nursing Education, PGIMER, Chandigarh in 2023 respectively. She has published 62 papers in journals and has worked as adaptation editor for two first south Asian Edition books namely (1) Polit and Beck, “Essentials of Nursing Research: Appraising Evidence for Nursing practice” by Wolters Kluwer and (2) Ross and Wilson, Applied Anatomy and Applied Physiology in Health and Illness by Elsevier Publications to her credit. She serves as a member of Board of Studies /Academic Council of 7 Universities in India. She also serves as an editorial board member and reviewer of nursing journals. She has six research scholars pursuing PhD under her guidance. She visited University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, USA as part of Faculty exchange program between SRIHER and University of Wisconsin. She is recognized as the Aspiring Research Ambassador of SRIHER. She is a member of the Editorial board of Journal of Advanced Nursing and Journal of Clinical Nursing. She serves as an executive committee member of St. Johns Ambulance Association, Tamil Nadu State center. Currently she is working on an ICMR funded research project titled, Effect of Probiotics on glycaemic control and pregnancy outcomes among women with Gestational diabetes and a Department of Health and Research Grant on Effectiveness of Family Integrated Lactation Management on breastmilk feeding outcomes among preterm babies
The Nursing Education team under her leadership received the University Best Teaching Team Excellence Award, 2021. She functioned as the Core-Coordinator of the Workshop on B.Sc.(Nursing) Revised Syllabus: Curriculum Implementation organized by Tamil Nadu Nurses and Midwives Council in August 2022 for 382 administrators in the rank of Principal and Vice Principal and 900 faculty members of various nursing colleges in Tamil Nadu. Similar workshops on curriculum implementation were conducted for academic administrators in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
With an increase in terminally ill population across the world, there is a greater awareness and interest among policy makers to improve the quality of life for terminally ill patients. Palliative care is in the development stage in India. Little is known about the extent of palliative care needs among hospitalized Indian patients. There are few studies available in the area of palliative care among the Indian population. This study will estimate the needs of terminally ill population and also explore the extent and meaning of terminal suffering among hospitalized south Asian patients. The results of the study will help in developing strategies to meet the needs of terminally ill patients and thereby improve their quality of life.
Ignorance about precancerous lesions can cause anxiety when women assume a slightly abnormal result to be cancer. When an abnormality involves the cervix, many women feel their femininity is undermined. As loss to follow-up is a persistent reality, hysterectomies are often performed proactively upon detection of even precancerous lesions. Hence, women need information about the abnormality, the rationale for treatment, and the precautions recommended after treatment. Moreover, the consequences of patient loss to follow-up require a more preventive, nonsurgical approach, such as educative supportive nursing interventions. Examples of nursing interventions that have been found to be effective were identified in a meta-analysis which reported that cognitive interventions improved treatment and follow-up adherence among women with abnormal smears by 24%-31%, and behavioral interventions, such as patient reminders, increased
follow-up by 18%. However, not all of these results achieved statistical significance. The investigator developed multiple strategies that included educative (cognitive) and supportive (behavioral) interventions plus telephone follow-up to improve clinical indicators, knowledge and behavioral adherence. This integrated educative supportive intervention program for Pap and microbiological cervical smear abnormalities focuses on preventive aspects, so that a woman with anyone problem gains additional information about other issues simultaneously. It has been highlighted that information given by healthcare providers in a familiar understandable language was perceived by women patients to be highly supportive.
The prevalence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in India stated by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare 2020 was 4.6%-14% in urban area and 1.7%- 13.2% in rural areas. GDM constitutes a greater impact on diabetic epidemic as it carries a greater risk of development of type II diabetes mellitus for both mother and fetus in later life. There are several risk factors of gestational diabetes which includes late pregnancies, overweight or obesity, history of T2DM, family history etc. Dietary and lifestyle modifications, regular physical activity helps to manage GDM and its further complications. Probiotics were defined as microbial derived factors that stimulate the growth of other organisms. It is hypothesized that L. reuteri supplementation improves insulin sensitivity and increases insulin secretion by augmenting incretin release. L.reuteri was selected for intervention because of its well-studied safety and its strong probiotic activity compared with 46 other strains of Lactobacillus spp (8). Scarcity in literature regarding comparison of pharmaceutical probiotic supplements on GDM. Investigations have been conducted to check efficacy of probiotics with biochemical parameters as outcome measures whereas only few literatures are available for fecal examination for quantification of lactic acid bacteria and compliance assessment. This ICMR funded Double blind placebo controlled randomised clinical trial study focuses on probiotic effect on glycaemic parameters up to 14 weeks of postnatal period. It is anticipated that the findings from this trial would enable the health care practitioners in India to render service based on the evidence based care to pregnant women with GDM.
Infants born preterm tend to breastfeed for a shorter duration than infants born at term. They are not fed directly to the breast due to illness or birth complications. Hence, preterm mothers are at a higher risk of delayed lactogenesis. Health care practitioners play an important role in breastfeeding initiation and sustainment, implementation of Baby-Friendly standards, increasing breastfeeding rates, and improving mothers’ satisfaction with breastfeeding. Preterm mothers and families face a lot of challenges in breastfeeding their preterm babies due to the poor sucking and swallowing coordination. Families of preterm babies have limited awareness to seek professional support to resolve breastfeeding problems and easily revert to use of formula milk or wean the preterm baby early are not aware of where and when to seek support from lactation specialists rather they use formula milk or early weaning from breastfeeding or early introduction to complementary feeds. This study funded by Department of Health Research – GIA, investigates the effectiveness of family-integrated lactation management (FILM) concept within the breastfeeding support service through a randomized control trial. The intervention includes individualized lactation support, demonstration, and simulation-based training to the father and primary caregiver to support breastfeeding along with proactive follow-up lactation support. Proposed outcomes are exclusive breastmilk feeding rate and infant growth outcomes.
a. Fernando P, Jagadeesh NS, Avudiappan S, et al PG64 Simulation-Indian nurse educator’s perspective, BMJ Simulation and Technology Enhanced Learning 2020;6:A65-A66.
Member of Trained Nurses Association of India
Member of Society for Midwives, India
Member Nursing Research Society of India
Nursing PhD society