Prof. Dr. Susanha Yimyam, Director of the Center of Excellence in Nursing was recently awarded the “Outstanding Nursing Award in Research and Innovation” from The Nurses’ Association of Thailand. She has become nationally and internationally recognized for her expertise in women’s sexual health and breastfeeding. In addition, her creativity in developing unique teaching tools and methods for delivering interventions has made her well-recognized for her contributions to nursing research.
Her breastfeeding and sexual reproductive health work has focused primarily on vulnerable populations. She has worked with workers from the informal work sector, migrant workers, underserved ethnic groups, as well as youth and teenagers. She studied and confirmed the efficacy of Thai herbal medicine to stimulate breastfeeding. Based on her findings, she has partnered with a local business to create a breastfeeding herbal tea line based on traditional recipes to commercially manufacture these teas and the Plee Preme tea line has become very successful - winning four awards in Thailand and six awards internationally.
She has also received several awards for excellence in teaching in recognition for her innovative teaching tools. Some examples include an apparatus in which students can use to practice conducting vaginal exams and a specialized apron for teaching breastfeeding that integrates high-fidelity aspects such as producing simulated breastmilk. To better engage students she developed an interactive breastfeeding e-book for students in the Thai undergraduate program.
She has been a Principal Investigator (PI) on 24 research projects and Co-Principal Investigator on an additional 30 research projects. Currently she is the PI for two studies – one on Helping Nursing Professionals to provide Breastfeeding support to teen mothers and the other on developing an updated version of her breastfeeding e-book for international students. This version of the e-book will integrate multimedia. As a Co-PI, she is researching the sexual health of older people.
Research Awards
- 2017 Outstanding Nursing Award in Research and Innovation, The Nurses’ Association of Thailand
- 2011 Outstanding Research Award, Chiang Mai University Faculty of Nursing
- 2010 Outstanding Alumni in Academia and Research, Mahidol University Graduate Alumni Association
- 2002 Distinguished Researcher in Nursing Research Award, Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council