Reimund Serafica, Ph.D., MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, CNE
Associate Professor
Biography
Dr. Rei Serafica is a tenured associate professor in the School of Nursing (SON) and a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Educator. He has contributed to science by publishing in peer-reviewed journal articles and presented in national and international conferences. He also implemented a viable and relevant research agenda that involves an interdisciplinary approach and mentorship for graduate students.
Expertise
Dr. Serafica’s research trajectory centers on acculturation as it relates to chronic disease of immigrants. His research has lead to the development of a new concept: dietary biculturalism, where he explores the phenomenon of unhealthy traditional food consumption by immigrants that elevates their risk of developing food-related chronic illnesses as much as when they consume an unhealthy Western diet during the post-migration phase./p>
Classes Taught
Dr. Serafica is currently teaching Nursing Theory and Research, Developing and Evaluating Curriculum for Nursing Education, Informatics and Quality Improvement, Clinical Synthesis for Nurse Practitioners, and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner courses in the graduate program.
Education Background
Dr. Serafica earned his bachelor and master's degree in nursing from Gardner-Webb University, his advanced graduate certificate in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his doctoral degree in Nursing (Research and Education) from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Research or Scholarship
Dr. Serafica’s concept of dietary biculturalism has extended previous discovery in the field of acculturation toward a new shift in terms of direction and application of food assessment in immigrants. The four areas that comprise his research are (1) changes in food patterns after immigrating to the United States (i.e., dietary acculturation), (2) prevalence of dietary biculturalism, (3) the use of technology to track dietary intake patterns of immigrants and, (4) other stressors such as acculturative stress, occupational stress, and food insecurity that may influence food intake, physical activity, quality of sleep, and mental health.
Dr. Serafica’s UNLV collaborative research team is assessing and analyzing food practices/food patterns in immigrants with cardiometabolic risk, which will be used in future interventions for educating patients and their primary care providers. His current collaborative research team will be examining food insecurity as it relates to quality of life and mental health status in patients with hypertension within the primary care setting.
Awards, recognitions, or group affiliations
Dr. Serafica serves as an associate editor to the Journal of Transcultural Nursing, and he is currently the President of the Asian American Pacific Islander Nurses Association (AAPINA) of Nevada. He also chairs the Faculty Promotion and Tenure Committee for the SON.