Jeungok Choi, RN, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, School of Nursing (SON). She has a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Tufts University with concentrations in Biostatistics and Epidemiology and a PhD in Nursing Boston College. She also had a postdoctoral research fellow training in Nursing and Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University School of Nursing sponsored by Reducing Health Disparities through Informatics Research Training Program (NINR T32NR07969).
Through her entire research career, she has been seeking for ways to improve healthcare communication for those with low literacy skills. Her approach is that appropriate pictographs (simple line drawings showing explicit healthcare actions to be taken) in addition to simplified text can improve learner’s cognitive learning process and enhance his/her engagement in deeper understanding. Her research has especially focused on web-based, pictograph-enhanced healthcare instructions for low-literate older adults with hip replacement surgery. She has completed several pilot studies about healthcare instructions for immigrant women (funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure) and older adults with hip replacement surgery (funded by Healey Endowment Grant University of Massachusetts). She is currently conducting two projects: development of web-based, pictograph-enhanced discharge instructions for low literate older adults (funded by American Nurses Foundation Association of Rehabilitation Nurses); and examination of the effect of these Web-based instructions on comprehension and recall, adherence to discharge instructions, and health outcomes (complications, admission to ER, readmission to hospital) using an experimental posttest repeated-measures design (funded by Sigma Theta Tau International, Inc.). Her publications have foci related to pictographs, web-based education, staffing model, and healthcare terminology.
At the University of Massachusetts, she has been involved in developing and teaching core DNP courses: Informatics for Nursing Practice, Intermediate Biostatistics, and Research Methodology in Nursing. She has advised many DNP students in their capstone projects. She is an academically and clinically trained statistical consultant through mentored consultation training and teaching experience. She was a recipient of 2011 College Outstanding Teacher by the School of Nursing University of Massachusetts.