Faculty Directory

Sabianca Delva

Assistant Professor

Profile

Sabianca Delva, Ph.D., RN, is an Assistant Professor at Boston College School of Nursing. She received her Doctor of Philosophy from Johns Hopkins University and her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Boston College. Dr. Delva has received several accolades including the Ruth Kirschtein F31 fellowship grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund her doctoral work. Dr. Delva has also been an active leader in the nursing community at large serving on the Board of Directors for the American Nurses Association (ANA) Massachusetts and also on the ANA Nominations and Elections committee nationally. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society and an inaugural inductee of the Johns Hopkins Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.

Her research focuses on using mobile health technologies such as Fitbits and smartphone apps for management of cardiometabolic diseases in ethnic minorities using a community participatory approach. This process is firmly rooted in the belief that engaging the community will be the key to developing viable solutions to the ever-evolving challenges in health care. Dr. Delva has years of clinical experience at Mass General Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital and the National Institutes of Health and has witnessed firsthand the hardships immigrants undergo navigating the US healthcare system. The non-English speaking patients often experience structural, cultural and linguistic barriers when accessing the health care system. Thus, she uses behavioral interventions to help ethnic minorities improve self-care management of cardiometabolic diseases to improve and ultimately reduce health disparities.

Selected Publications

  • Delva, S., Marseille, B., Foronda, C. L., Solomon, A. Y., Pfaff, T., & Baptiste, D. L. (2022). Hand hygiene practices in Caribbean and Latin American countries: An integrative review. Journal of clinical nursing.
  • Baptiste, D. L., Turner, S., Josiah, N., Arscott, J., Alvarez, C., Turkson-Ocran, R. A., ...Delva, S., ... & Hamilton, J. (2021). Hidden figures of nursing: the historical contributions of Black nurses and a narrative for those who are unnamed, undocumented and underrepresented. Journal of advanced nursing77(4), 1627.
  • Delva S, Mendez KJ, Cajita M, Koirala B, Shan R, Wongvibulsin S, Vilarino V, Gilmore DR, Han HR. Efficacy of mobile health for self-management of cardiometabolic risk factors: a theory-guided systematic review. The Journal of cardiovascular nursing. 2021 Jan;36(1):34. DOI: 10.1097/jcn.0000000000000659
  • Cudjoe J, Delva S, Cajita M, Han HR. Empirically tested health literacy frameworks. HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2020 Feb 11;4(1):e22-44. DOI: 10.3928/24748307-20191025-01
  • Hughes V, Delva S, Nkimbeng M, Spaulding E, Turkson-Ocran RA, Cudjoe J, Ford A, Rushton C, D'Aoust R, Han HR. Not missing the opportunity: Strategies to promote cultural humility among future nursing faculty. Journal of Professional Nursing. 2020 Jan 1;36(1):28-33. DOI: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2019.06.005
  • Delva S, Nkimbeng M, Chow S, Renda S, Han HR, D'Aoust R. Views of regulatory authorities on standards to assure quality in online nursing education. Nursing outlook. 2019 Nov 1;67(6):747-59. DOI: 10.1016/j.outlook.2019.06.011
  • Baptiste DL, Hamilton JB, Foronda C, Sloand E, Fahlberg B, Pfaff T, Delva S, Davidson PM. Hypertension among adults living in Haiti: An integrative review. Journal of clinical nursing. 2018 Jul;27(13-14):2536-45. DOI: 10.1111/jocn.14320
  • Han HR, Delva S, Greeno RV, Negoita S, Cajita M, Will W. A health literacy-focused intervention for Latinos with hypertension. HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2018 Feb 1;2(1):e21-5. DOI: 10.3928/24748307-20180108-02