Prof. Sudath S.P Warnakulasuriya

RN, RMN, B.Sc. (Hon), MNSc., PGDCP, PhD

 

Dean, Faculty of Nursing, University of Colombo

Prof. Sudath Shirley Pathmasiri Warnakulasuriya entered into nursing profession in 1987 and completed his basic nursing diploma at School of Nursing Galle. He received his BSc Nursing degree in 1998 from Open University Sri Lanka with upper class honor.  He received his Master degree from University of Adelaide in 2003 Under WHO scholarship, which sparked off his research interest and motivated him in scientific research and further study in mental health. He successfully completed Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychosocial works (PGDCP in 2011 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies in University of Colombo.

He obtained his PhD degree in 2014 from the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He has worked in Republic of Seychelles for two years as a lecturer for mental health, making significant contributions in the field of Mental health by developing and implementing a Post RN Diploma course in Mental Health Nursing. His works on the area of occupational health and work ergonomics led to the publication of many articles in peer-reviewed high impact journals and provided a better understanding of mechanisms of the low back pain and musculoskeletal disorders among different occupational groups. And as a part of his PhD, he had cross culturally validated low back pain disability measuring tool by fulfilling the need of such a standard tool to assess disability associated with low back pain in Sri Lanka.

Prof. Warnakulasuriya was awarded by the National Research Council for two consecutive years (2013/2014) and also in 2017 under presidential award scheme. Moreover he received two professional awards in 2014 from Sri Lanka Nurses Association with “Florence Nightingale Award” and Government Nursing Officers Association with “Hedda Uttamabimani” award for being the first Sri Lankan Nursing personnel to get a PhD from a conventional University in Sri Lanka. .

Although Prof. Warnakulasuriya  did  very well at University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Department of Allied Health Sciences, he decided to get a transfer to Faculty of Nursing, University of Colombo in 2018,the first Nursing Faculty in Sri Lanka , because he has been one of the conceptual  decision maker to establish a nursing faculty for the nursing profession in Sri Lanka and he had immensely contributed his expertise to the new nursing faculty establishment in different way. Further, Prof. Warnakulasuriya has contributed immensely for all nursing professional organizations and trade unions as a guest speaker and a motivator for thousands of nurses in Sri Lanka. Presently he is the general secretory to the Sri Lanka Nurses Association and executive committee member to the Graduate Nurses Foundation. During the past eight years he has been an executive council member for Organization of Professional Association (OPA), The largest professional Organization in Asia representing the Nursing profession.Prof. Warnakulasuriya is maintaining very exiting research profile with more than 40 research publications and also he has been cited more than 570 scientists for the time being. Prof. Warnakulasuriya also has contributed to the Ministry of Health as a resource person for various policy decisions forums regarding nursing and being a chairperson for program review committees at Ministry of Higher Education. Currently, Prof. Warnakulasuriya is a Sri Lankan lead of international campaign established by International Council of Nurses(ICN) also he is the member of scientific steering committee established for changing the code of ethics for nurses by the International Council of Nurses(ICN).  His research interests are work ergonomics, occupational health, musculoskeletal disorders particularly nurses’ health.