Joyce S. Fontana, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Nursing
Chair, Nursing Division
Contact
Phone: 860.231.5282
E-mail:
jfontana@sjc.edu
Department Web Site:
Nursing
"When I drive to work every day," Dr. Joyce Fontana says, "I feel like I am going home."
It's no wonder, since Dr. Fontana is a former nursing student at Saint Joseph College, a time she remembers as one of the "happiest in my life." Dr. Fontana continued to teach a full load at the College while she pursued her Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut. She tells her students, "There is no doubt in my mind that if you want anything badly enough, you can get it."
Since 1997, Dr. Fontana has been doing what she is most passionate about: teaching at the College she loves. She comments, "Nursing education has the potential to change health care. Teaching gives me more influence to affect change, to change health care for the better. Education is liberating. It can change the way we see our reality."
Pain management is primary among Dr. Fontana's educational objectives. Nurses, she feels, need to manage a patient's pain in an ethical manner and must always keep up with the latest medical advances. Dr. Fontana contends, "There is no sitting back ... No saying that there is nothing left to learn because a nurse must constantly keep up with the technological advances in an ever-changing care industry."
Degrees:
Ph.D., University of Connecticut
M.S.N. University of Hartford
B.S.N. Saint Joseph College
Research/Publications:
"A Critical Examination of Advanced Practice Nurses' Prescribing Practices for Patients with Chronic Nonmalignant Pain" Eastern Nursing Research Society 17th Annual Scientific Sessions, New York, New York, April 8, 2005.
"A Critical Examination of Advanced Practice Nurses' Prescribing Practices for Patients with Chronic Nonmalignant Pain," 13th Annual Connecticut Research Day, Connecticut Chapters of Sigma Theta Tau, International, New Haven, Connecticut, March 3, 2005.
"Different Paths to Knowledge Development. Exploring Qualitative Methods- Meta-Synthesis," 6th Annual Capitol Alliance Nursing Research/Research Utilization Conference, Hartford, Connecticut, October 2002.
"A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Studies on Chronic Pain," 11th Annual CT Chapters Research Day, Sigma Theta Tau, Hartford, Connecticut, April, 2002.
"A Study of Change in an Emancipatory Context," 12th Annual International Conference on Critical and Feminist Perspectives in Nursing, Portland, Maine, November 2002.
Certifications
Medical-Surgical Nursing ANCC
End-of-Life Nursing Education AACN
Publications
Jacobs, B.B., Fontana, J., Kehoe, M., Matarese, C., & Chinn, P.L., "An Emancipatory Study of Contemporary Nursing Practice," Nursing Outlook, 53 (1). 6-14, April 2002.
Fontana, J., "A Methodology for Critical Science in Nursing," Advances in Nursing Science
, 27(2), 93-101, 2004.
Fontana, J., "Rational Suicide in the Terminally Ill," Journal of Nursing Scholarship
, 34(2). 147-150, 2002.
