Whei Ming Su
- Associate Professor of Nursing
International scholar, researcher, presenter and instructor, Whei Ming Su, BS, MA, RN, CCRN, was born in China and moved to Taiwan at eight months of age. Her childhood was spent in both places, but since 1975 has lived in the United States. “Being bilingual and appreciating these cultures has made me more sensitive to people from various origins,” according to Su.
Su received her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan and a Master of Arts in Nursing Education from New York University , New York City. Su always wanted to be a teacher. When she became a nurse and worked in critical care in China, nursing roles were more technical than they were and are in America. In the United States, nurses are teachers and use more theory on a daily basis. “Now I see nursing and teaching as complimentary,” said Su.
In the 1940's, the Communist Chinese shut down educational nursing programs and only technical nursing programs survived. In 1985, when China “opened” after the Cultural Revolution, Su was one of the early foreign instructors working with the Chinese as a “The Project Hope” educator and has returned to her native country often to improve its nursing education.
The Project Hope, the People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc. initiated a faculty education program in China from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Su and one other American nurse educator planned and implemented a six month clinical faculty preparation program there in 1985.
In 1988 Sue, along with three other Project Hope nursing educators, coordinated and implemented a three month Faculty Preparation Program for its bachelor's degree nursing program. Teachers from 11 newly established Chinese BSN programs participated.
With eight other American nurse educators, Su again coordinated and implemented a one month Faculty Preparation Program in Taiwan for Professional Nursing Education sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Sixty faculty from different regions of Taiwan attended. A series of workshops covered the following topics: Nursing Theory, Curriculum Building and Teaching Strategies.
Su has developed a relationship with Peking Union Medical College (PUMC). According to the PUMC website, “it was founded in 1906 with the joint support from the then-Chinese government and several British and American religious groups (thus the term "Union"). In 1917, it was re-organized with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and relocated to the current site in downtown Beijing (Peking). Today PUMC is widely considered to be the most prestigious medical school in China. Its unique eight-year-long M.D. program has provided generations of leaders for academic modern medicine and related areas in China. PUMC has also been affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) since the latter's establishment in 1956.” Its dean of nursing was in Su's 1988 class and she invited Su to her college for faculty development. Su has returned to China almost every year since 1990 to conduct faculty development workshops, curriculum design and consultation.
In 1995, PUMC established the first independent college school of nursing, receiving a grant to develop a nursing model curriculum. Thought by Su to be one of her greatest accomplishments, she helped to design all of its nursing courses fashioned after the 4-year American Nursing Model influenced by PNC nursing design. Previously, classes had been based on a medical body system taught by physicians but Su created courses based on human function taught by nurses.
Immediately after 9/11, Su twice was among a very select group of United Nations short term consultants for its developing nursing program.
Su conducted classroom teaching at Purdue University North Central campus to 49 Taiwanese students who were in the BSN classroom at Fooyin University .
Su has experience in critical care, post-op, pediatrics, medical units and the operating room while employed at La Porte Hospital, Saint Anthony Hospital, Walters Hospital and 804 Army Hospital, Taiwan. She has lectured at Foo Yin Nursing College, Taiwan and has been on staff at Purdue University North Central for the past 30 years, first as assistant professor, then becoming associate professor in 1984.
Su was co-coordinator for the Self Study Report of the PNC Nursing Program which was submitted to the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission in 2001. She teaches Advanced Medical-Surgical Nursing, Transition to Baccalaureate Nursing and Introduction to Pathophysiology. Su says, “PNC prepares students to provide services to promote the health of our communities.”
Su has published ten articles since 1998, written many more on critical thinking, co-authored a textbook chapter on intravenous infusion and given more than four dozen regional, national and international presentations on a variety of critical thinking and nursing topics.
Her husband, Paul Osisek, Associate Professor of Developmental Studies at PNC, teaches psychology and counseling. They met in China when Osisek was an exchange teacher from University of Massachusetts and the two married in 1986. Su's hobbies are gardening and travel.
She received the Purdue University North Central Outstanding Teacher Award in 1992, 1999 and 2003.
