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The Connell School of Nursing has welcomed its new associate dean for undergraduate programs, Sean Clarke, an internationally noted nurse researcher with extensive experience in teaching and leading academia-practice partnerships.
Clarke, who is also a professor in the Connell School, assumed the position July 1, succeeding Associate Professor Catherine Read, who had served as associate dean since 2006.
Prior to coming to Boston College, Clarke was the Susan E. French Chair in Nursing Research and Innovative Practice at McGill University’s Ingram School of Nursing. He also directed the McGill Nursing Collaborative, a series of projects between McGill and its affiliated clinical agencies. From 2008-12, he was an endowed clinical chair in cardiovascular nursing research at the University of Toronto and University Health Network. He previously served as associate director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania.
BC’s commitment to liberal arts education was one of the things Clarke found attractive about coming to CSON. “The liberal arts and science foundation here is really exceptional. That background is important in the long run.”
Clarke said he has seen the benefits of such a foundation in his work training researchers at the doctoral level. “If you don’t lay down some of those habits of mind, that ability to look beyond a narrow nursing focus, it becomes very difficult to do much afterwards in terms of writing and bringing together knowledge from different areas.”
BC nursing students enjoy the distinct advantage of having “one of the best liberal arts educations available in the country together with the unparalleled opportunities in health care that Boston provides,” he said.
“We are delighted that Sean Clarke has joined our faculty,” said CSON Dean and Professor Susan Gennaro. “He is the exact right person to educate the nurse leaders of the future — our undergraduate students — because his research has helped us understand how nurses can best be used in the health care of tomorrow. Dr. Clarke is a consummate educator who has taught students across all levels of nursing education. He is a cardiovascular nurse by training and brings with him compassion, a great sense of humor, unending energy, and a true belief in leadership.
“He is a nurse who is married to a nurse and has seen – whether from the bedside or via policy decisions, in this country and abroad – how nursing can make a difference in the health of an individual and a country. Dr. Clarke’s research has been carried out in the US, Canada and Switzerland, to name just a few countries, and he is truly nationally and internationally known,” she added.
Born in Toronto and raised in Ottawa, Clarke earned bachelor degrees in biochemistry-nutrition at the University of Ottawa and psychology at Carleton University. After working alongside nurses in hospitals and nursing homes, Clarke decided to pursue a career in nursing. He enrolled in McGill, where he graduated with a master’s degree and doctorate in nursing. He was a coronary care unit nurse, completing specialized training as an adult acute care nurse practitioner with a focus on cardiology.
“I really liked what nurses did and I liked who they were as people,” he said. “I liked how they thought about their work and how, in these complicated systems, they found ways to put the patient first.”
Clarke’s post-doctoral work at Penn focused on issues related to nurse management, patient outcomes and nurses’ workplace safety. His research group examined data for 70,000 nurses and millions of patients across multiple countries. A Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, he has published more than 100 articles, including an influential research paper on nurses’ educational level and surgical patient mortality that appeared in JAMA (the journal of the American Medical Association).
In his four months at BC, Clarke says he has been impressed by the high energy level of the nursing faculty and their commitment to students. “The undergraduate program is excellent, but the Connell School is always thinking about ways to make the education better. We want to think about what the clinical world of the future will look and think ahead to the ways our education needs to prepare students for that.
“We want to expand our leadership development for all students. We want to think more about interdisciplinary teaching, like that offered in the public health program.”
Clarke is quick to point out that the undergraduate program is a team effort, involving course leaders, clinical instructors, and collaborators in the College of Arts and Sciences. “My job to help set the stage for the discussions to make sure we continue to be on the cutting edge.”