ACADEMICS - Faculty
Joyce B. Perkins, PhD, RN, CHTP, MT(ASCP)
Assistant Professor
perkinsj@augsburg.edu
Joyce teaches in the BSN and Master of Arts in Nursing programs. Her areas of expertise include complementary and alternative therapies, group exercise and fitness, genetics, transformational nursing leadership, and the new science of complexity, chaos and wave theory. She has studied with two nurse theorists. Dr. Jean Watson (Transpersonal Caring Theory) served as the Chair of her dissertation committee and Ph.D. work at the University of Colorado Health and Science Center (UCHSC) in Denver, CO, and Dr. Margaret Newman (Health as Expanding Consciousness) was her teacher and mentor at the University of Minnesota. Two Rogerians (Dr. Martha Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings), Dr. Francelyn Reeder and Dr. Marlaine Smith, at UCHSC, were also essential to her work in energy therapies and holistic nursing. Joyce serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Holistic Nursing.
Joyce has worked as a psychiatric nurse since 1999 at St. Mary’s Hospital, Generose Building, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Her hospital nursing experience includes addictions, depression/mood disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic pain. Joyce is certified in many healing modalities including: Healing Touch (CHTP), Reiki, Spring Forest Qigong, and Medical Qigong. She has studied the healing practices of shamans and healers among Native American Indian Tribes, including the Q’ero Indians of Peru.
Joyce has a 23-year career in the health and fitness arena as well. She has taught exercise classes and workshops at various fitness facilities, including the Rochester Athletic Club. Joyce is certified as a Group Exercise Instructor and currently teaches qigong, yoga, water aerobics and a water class for persons with arthritis and fibromyalgia.
Prior to joining Augsburg College in September of 2006, Joyce taught at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
Research, scholarly interests, and theory development
Nurses Health Promotion Study: Department of Nursing staff self-reported ratings of stress levels, coping strategies, happiness, awareness and use of employer sponsored health promotion resources, and knowledge and use of complementary/integrated therapies. 2009
A Unitary Caring Science: The Art~Science of Nursing in a Complex World, 2009
Healing Touch and Health Related Quality of Life in Women with Breast Cancer Receiving Radiation Therapy, 2008
The Effect of Qigong on Depression: Mood Disorder and Gene Expression, 2005
Portraits of Healers: Synchronicity revealed in journals reflecting levels of awareness and interactive action. 2004
Portraits of Healers Dwelling with Others in Touch Therapies. 2004
A Cosmology of Compassion for Nursing Explicated via Dialogue with Self, Science, and Spirit, 2004
The Experience of Practitioners Working Within an Energy Healing Paradigm to Help and to Heal Their Clients. 2001
Health Personnel, Stress and Relaxation/Exercise. 2002
Non Pharmacological Pain Methods: Nurses’ Comfort With, Knowledge of, and Use. 1998
Recent Publications/Presentations
“Qigong/Yoga and Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Health as Practiced on an Inpatient Depression/Mood Disorder Hospital Unit.” World Federation for Mental Health Conference on Transcultural Mental Health in a Changing World: Building a Global Response. 2007
“Transformational Foundations for Caring and Global Health: An Exploration of Transcultural Care Systems.” Transcultural Nursing Society International Meeting, Human Rights: Migration and Poverty, Impact on Health Care. Bournemouth University, Bournemouth England. 2007
“Portraits of Healers: Synchronicity Revealed in Journals Reflecting Levels of Awareness and Interactive Action.” First International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry official program abstracts. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2005
“Portraits of Healers Dwelling with Others in Touch Therapies.” Australian College of Holistic Nursing Conference Abstract, Brisbane, Australia 2004
“A Cosmology of Compassion for Nursing Explicated via Dialogue with Self, Science and Spirit.” UMI Dissertation Services
University of Colorado Health Science Center Denver, CO. 2004
“Healing Through Spirit: The Experience of the Eternal in the Everyday” Visions: Journal of the Society of Rogerian Scholars, Vol. 11, Number 1 2003
“Dialogue Between Science and Self; Science and Spirit.” International Association of Human Caring Conference Abstracts, Boulder, CO. 2003
