Depok, 24 Juni 2025 The Faculty of Nursing (FoN) at Universitas Indonesia (UI) continues to show its role as a leader in health innovation. Today, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, Sukarmin successfully earned his doctorate, bringing good news to millions of people with hypertension in Indonesia. His dissertation, titled "The Effectiveness of the KEMIS (Islamic Emotional Resilience) Model in Controlling Psychological Conditions, Blood Pressure, Spiritual Well-being, and Social Support for Hypertension Patients," is clear evidence of FoN UI's commitment to producing outstanding research with a direct impact on society.

The doctoral promotion hearing was led by Prof. Dr. Rr. Tutik Sri Hariyati, S.Kp., MARS, with the guidance of Promoter Prof. Dra. Elly Nurachmah, M.App.Sc., DNSc., and Co-Promoters Sri Yona, S.Kp., M.N., Ph.D., and Dr. Dewi Gayatri, S.Kp, M.Kes.

Hypertension, more commonly known as high blood pressure, is one of the most serious health problems worldwide, including in Indonesia. It's often called a "silent killer" because it frequently shows no early symptoms but can lead to dangerous complications like heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure. Given its complexity, managing hypertension cannot solely focus on medication; it must also address the emotional and spiritual aspects of patients to achieve optimal control and improve their quality of life.

Seeing this need, Sukarmin's dissertation presents an innovative solution: the KEMIS (Islamic Emotional Resilience) Model. This approach is a new way to combine the power of positive emotions with religious and spiritual values to help hypertension patients manage their condition.

Sukarmin's research was conducted in two stages to ensure the effectiveness of the KEMIS Model. The first stage was a qualitative study involving 10 patients. This revealed that physical conditions, family problems, and work could trigger negative emotions in hypertension patients. However, patients also found ways to calm their anger and emotions, such as through prayer and *zikir* (remembrance of God), which increased their belief in God's will. Additionally, improvements in obligatory and supplementary worship, good physical management, as well as social support and positive activities were proven to create calmness and mental stability.

After understanding the patients' experiences, the research continued to the second stage, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving 100 hypertension patients at a hospital in Kudus. The patients were divided into two groups: one received the KEMIS Model therapy, and the other did not.

The results were truly significant! This research shows that the KEMIS Model is very effective in helping hypertension patients. Those who underwent the KEMIS therapy experienced a clear improvement in their psychological conditions (such as reduced stress and anxiety levels), a decrease in both systolic (upper number) and diastolic (lower number) blood pressure, an increase in spiritual well-being, and a strengthening of social support.

All these improvements showed very strong statistical results (p-value < 0.001), meaning the changes that occurred were not by chance. This means that the KEMIS Model has great potential to be implemented in healthcare services, especially as a complementary therapy for hypertension patients, in order to optimize blood pressure control and improve their ability to face the challenges of the disease.

Sukarmin's success is a reflection of FoN UI's vision to become a nursing institution that not only excels in education but also makes a real impact through research. This study not only enriches nursing science, especially in the fields of cardiovascular and mental health, but also offers a practical intervention based on scientific evidence that is highly relevant to the cultural and spiritual values of Indonesian society. FoN UI will continue to encourage the birth of innovative research that provides concrete solutions to health problems, as well as to produce graduates who are not only clinically skilled but also capable of innovating and contributing significantly to the advancement of nursing science at a global level.