Dr. Pamela Stewart Fahs Speaks on "Promoting Heart Health in Rural Women" at SUNY Delhi

DELHI, NY (09/17/2013)(readMedia)-- The SUNY Delhi Honor Society of Nursing and the Catskill Hudson Area Health Education Center present guest speaker Dr. Pamela Stewart Fahs who will discuss "Promoting Heart Health in Rural Women" Thursday, October 3 at 4 p.m. in The Okun Theatre in the Farrell Student and Community Center.

"Not only is Dr. Fahs' work crucial for women in our community, but offering this level of awareness for our nursing students and partners in healthcare is a major step in the reduction of risks," said Jennifer Lusins, Assistant Professor of the School of Nursing and President of the SUNY Delhi Honor Society of Nursing. "The School of Nursing at Delhi is committed to generating nurses who have a strong understanding of patient education and prevention of health complications and we are pleased that Dr. Fahs is a part of that."

Dr. Fahs, who believes rural women are underrepresented in cardiovascular disease research, has focused her own research on this population. Dr. Fahs has found increased cardiovascular disease risks in rural women and believes that they can be combatted with similar interventions that have been successful in urban areas. Her important message to the community is early recognition of the risks and building a consensus in how to reduce these risks.

Dr. Fahs has worked with rural populations for much of her career to promote optimal cardiovascular outcomes. She has spent many years building a reputation as a researcher who works with the community. Dr. Fahs' strong and long-term connections with community organizations have allowed her to serve as a principal investigator on several cardiovascular disease risk reduction studies that have been conducted in Delaware County.

Dr. Fahs is a professor at Binghamton University and holds the Decker Endowed Chair in Rural Nursing there. Her work has been published in top journals in her discipline such as Nursing Research, Annual Review of Research, Journal of Nursing Scholarship and recently in the Journal of Rural Health. Professor Fahs has successfully sought funding from sources ranging from local and regional non-profit organizations to national professional organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is currently working with Upstate Medical University to educate women on female-specific heart attack symptoms while testing an instrument that measures knowledge in this area.

This activity has been approved for contact hours by the Pensylvania State Nurses Association, an accredited member of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

The event is supported by The Erpf-Sanford Visiting Scholar Endowment and SUNY Delhi's School of Nursing as well as the Catskill Hudson Area Health Education Center.

For more information, contact Dr. Mary Pat Lewis at 607-746-4492 or lewismp@delhi.edu.