Areas of expertise
Biography
PhD, RN Riitta Suhonen is Professor in Nursing Science and has a speciality Gerontological Nursing Science since 2011. RS is the Director of the Doctoral Programme in Nursing Science (DPNurs) in UTU and the Vice Head of the Department of Nursing Science. She is the fellow (FEANS) of the European Academy of Nursing Science (board and scientific committee member). RS has a part-time position of Nursing Director in the Turku University Hospital and City of Turku, Welfare Division since 2016. RS has worked in the Department of Nursing Science since 2008 and formerly as a quality and development manager in health care district understanding of the healthcare systems, nurse leader and registered nurse. She is the former associate editor of the Nursing Open (Wiley) and Nursing Ethics (Sage).
Teaching
Professor Suhonen is responsible for the courses about gerontological nursing science in UTU. She is also responsible for the international course called CIDI Clinical Instruments for Evaluating Health - Development, Evaluation and Implementation 25 ects. She teaches topics such as older people nursing care, research methodology, instrument development, academic writing, quantitative research methods in nursing science and research ethics. She has several PhD candidates and master students in supervision.
Research
Prof Suhonen is the scientific leader of the research programme called "Older Individuals' Health, Nursing and Services" and the co-lead of the “Ethical healthcare and Nursing” research programme. She has been a principal investigator and coordinator of the Individualized Care Project since 2002, which evaluates the realisation of individuality in patients’ care from the point of view of patients and nurses in different clinical fields including national and international parts. Currently, the focus is on older people's cnursing care and services with the main aim to develop quality of services and care processes for older people and their caregivers. In addition, the research is focused on producing knowledge about individuality of care services to support self-management of older people.
The Individualised Care Project resulted in the Individualised Care Scale instrument, which has been translated and adapted for use in more than 30 countries. Other research topics are nursing and healthcare ethics, nursing education and nursing management. She has expertise in older people nursing care, individualized care, management, ethics, self-management of older people, and support of independence of older people. RS is experienced in leading and participating in international cross-cultural studies Individualised Care project, CBI-project, RightTimePlaceCare 2009-2013, ERASMUS+ Nurse-Lead 2016-2010 and currently is a co-researcher in many projects. She acted as the member of the Management Group, the CORE group and the WG leader (WG3 The ethical dimension of rationing of nursing care), in the COST Action RANCARE CA15208, Rationing - Missed Nursing care: An international and multidimensional problem 2016-2020.