Research/Scholarship

Dr. Zhan is a Fellow of American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) and her program of research focuses on Quality of Life of older adults and ethnic minorities. Her scholarly work is evident by funded research projects such as Health promotion for ethnic elderly women; family care giving for Alzheimer’s Disease; Self-consistency and self-care among African American older adults; Medication practices in community-dwelling Chinese American elders; promotion of hydration for community dwelling elderly; and Senior health service needs in Boston’s Chinatown. Dr. Zhan was a Research Fellow at Institute for Asian American Studies at UMass Boston and a Research Fellow at Boston’s Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged where she studied family care giving for persons with Alzheimer’s disease under the NIH K24 Grant.  Dr. Zhan has served as consultant for UMass Boston and Lowell funded HRSA grants for Nursing Workforce Diversity. Dr. Zhan scholarly work extends to serving as a reviewer for refereed journals of Nursing Education, Nursing Research, Advanced Nursing Sciences, Nursing Reports (Online journal in United Kingdom), and on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Gerontological Nursing.

Dr. Zhan has published near 100 articles and edited five books: Asian Voices: Asian American Speak Out (1999), Asian Americans: Vulnerable populations, Model Interventions, and Clarifying Agendas (2003), Gerontological Nursing (2006), Asian American Voices: Engaging, Empowering, Enabling (2009), and Accelerated Education in Nursing: Challenges, Strategies, and Future Directions (2011). Dr. Zhan developed two instruments (1) to measure self-consistency (Zhan & Shen, 1994) and (2) to measure medication practice in the community-dwelling older adults (Zhan, 2004). These instruments that measure psycho-behavioral constructs were published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing or Journal of Gerontological Nursing, respectively. Dr. Zhan developed a conceptual model on Quality of Life, which was published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing (1992). The NIH K24 funded research on family caregivers of Alzheimer’s’ diseases was published in the Journal of Gerontologist (2005).

Teaching

Dr. Zhan has taught nursing from the BSN to the PhD level courses. At the PhD level, she taught Philosophy of Science, Epistemology of Nursing, Theoretical Foundation in Health Promotion and Nursing, Intervention Research in Health Promotion and Nursing, Measurement in Health and Behavioral Research, Research Apprenticeship, Evaluation Research and served as Chair or Member on over 14 PhD dissertation committees. At the MSN level, she taught Human Diversity and Health Care, Gerontological Nursing, and Health Care Management; at the BSN level, she taught Leadership & Management Scholarly Inquiry, Essential Concepts in Nursing, Community Health Nursing, Health Promotion and Teaching & online course Asian Cultures and Health Practices.

Consultation (Selected)

Dr. Zhan has served as consultant for Partner Harvard Medical International for the project to establish the first National Institute of Health Sciences in Islamabad, Pakistan, 2008-2011; For HRSA funded projects ($1.3Million) “Nurse Scholars Program” and “Bring the Best to Nursing” ($770k) which involves recruitment, Retention and enhance minority students to Nursing (PI: Dr. Linda Dumas, U. Mass Boston College of Nursing and Health Sciences, 2007-2010; 2003-2006).

Internationally, Dr. Zhan serves as a senior Consultant for the Leadership Development for Knowledge-Based Health Practice, Lu Hau Hospital, Guangzhou, P.R. China; for the 2nd Military Medical University, School of Nursing to develop a MSN program and later a PhD program in nursing, 1998-2000; 2002-2003.

Awards & Honors (Selected)

Dr. Zhan has received awards for Outstanding Leadership in Nursing and Education, National League for Nursing, Las Vegas, 10/10; Extraordinary Leadership Award, by New Jersey Asian American Human and Health Services, NJ 9/05

Excellent Education Award, by Massachusetts Association of RNs (MARN), 4/05; Partners in Excellence Award, by Harvard Medical School and Partner Healthcare 5/01; Outstanding Service Award, by the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, UMB, 5/01; Exemplary ServicesAward, by National League for Nursing, Chicago, IL, 9/98; Outstanding Research, Sigma Theta Tau Theta Chapter, Boston, MA, 5/96; Lucile Petry Leone Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing Education, National League for Nursing, Chicago, 6/95.

Service (Selected)

Dr. Zhan has provided services to higher education, nursing profession and healthcare community locally, regionally, and globally. Nationally, Dr. Zhan is an Associate in the Institute for Nursing Healthcare Leadership, Boston, a Clinical Scientist at Phyllis F. Cantor Center Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and serves on the Board of Directors of Massachusetts Association of Older Americans, Boston, Massachusetts. Nationally, she serves as the Board of Governors of National League for Nursing in New York and American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel on Aging. 

Internationally, Dr. Zhan is a visiting/honorary professor in ten (10) Chinese universities such as the 2nd Military Medical University in Shanghai, the 3rd Military Medical University in Chong Qing, Macau Kiang Wu College of Nursing, Sichuan University, Jining Medical College, Bei Hua University, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Su Zhou Medical University, and serves as a senior consultant for Lu Hua Qiao Hospital in GuangZhou, P.R. China. In 2007 Dr Zhan was invited by the US People to People Ambassador Program and led the US Health Care Education and Leadership Delegation to P.R. China.  Currently Dr. Zhan served as a consultant for Partner Harvard Medical International (Boston, MA) in an effort to establish a College of Nursing and Midwifery and Institute of Health Sciences in Islamabad, Pakistan. She also consults for the Square College of Nursing in Bangladesh.