Sean Clarke

Faculty

Sean Clarke Headshot

Sean Clarke

FAAN PhD RN

Ursula Springer Professor in Nursing Leadership
Executive Vice Dean

1 212 998 5264

433 First Ave
New York, NY 10010
United States

Sean Clarke, RN, PhD, FAAN, is the executive vice dean and a professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. His research focuses on quality and safety issues in acute care hospitals, workforce issues, occupational safety of nurses, and the influences of economic and political factors on healthcare delivery and the nursing profession. He is perhaps best known for research on nurse staffing in hospitals and surveys of nurse working conditions. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and 30 book chapters. Clarke has been a principal investigator on projects supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and has served as a co-investigator on grants totaling over $10 million over the course of his career. In addition to teaching nursing, health policy, and research at the baccalaureate through doctoral levels, he also supervises PhD and postdoctoral research trainees and maintains a program of research with colleagues from a number of countries. 

Clarke has been a member of a variety of panels and boards related to health research and healthcare quality. He has had extensive involvement in peer review of research articles and grants and served on editorial boards of a number of scientific and professional journals in nursing and health services research. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and currently holds affiliate faculty appointments at the Université de Montréal and the University of Hong Kong.

Prior to joining the faculty at NYU Meyers, he was a professor and associate dean in the Undergraduate Program at the Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, from 2014–2018. He was also on faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing for seven years, held an endowed chair in cardiovascular nursing at the University of Toronto, and was an endowed chair directing a special donor-funded set of projects intended to advance collaboration between the School of Nursing and its affiliated teaching hospitals at McGill University. He also co-directed nursing health services and workforce research groups in Philadelphia and Toronto and has been a consultant to clinicians, leaders, and professional associations on issues related to nursing and patient safety for almost two decades in Canada, the United States, and internationally. 

Clarke completed his basic clinical and research training in nursing at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, and pursued a nurse practitioner education and a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds BA and BS degrees from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, in his hometown of Ottawa, Canada.

PhD - McGill University School of Nursing
MS - McGill University School of Nursing
BA - Carleton University
BS - University of Ottawa

Nursing workforce
Adult health
Nursing administration
Health Policy

Creative Teaching Award, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto (2011)
Dean’s Award for Undergraduate Teaching, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (2007)
Junior Faculty Research Award, Biobehavioral and Health Sciences Division School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania (2006)
Fellow, American Academy of Nursing (2006)
Class of 1965 25th Reunion Term Chair, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing [for enduring contributions to undergraduate education] (2006)
American Academy of Nursing Media Award for coverage of Aiken, Clarke et al., JAMA, October 23/30, 2002 (2003)
Article of the Year, Academy Health [Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy] for Aiken, Clarke et al., JAMA, October 23/30, 2002 (2003)
American Academy of Nursing Media Award for coverage of Aiken, Clarke, et al. Health Affairs, 2001 (2002)
Induction into Sigma Theta Tau, Xi Chapter (1999)

International collaborations in nursing research: The experience of the international hospital outcomes study

Clarke, S. P. (2004). Applied Nursing Research, 17(2), 134-136. 10.1016/j.apnr.2004.03.002

Made in Canada? In search of a national research identity

Clarke, S. P., & Gottlieb, L. N. (2004). Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 36(4), 3-6.

Nurse burnout and patient satisfaction.

Vahey, D. C., Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., Clarke, S. P., & Vargas, D. (2004). Medical Care, 42(2), II57-66. 10.1097/01.mlr.0000109126.50398.5a
Abstract
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Amid a national nurse shortage, there is growing concern that high levels of nurse burnout could adversely affect patient outcomes. OBJECTIVES: This study examines the effect of the nurse work environment on nurse burnout, and the effects of the nurse work environment and nurse burnout on patients' satisfaction with their nursing care. RESEARCH DESIGN/SUBJECTS: We conducted cross-sectional surveys of nurses (N=820) and patients (N=621) from 40 units in 20 urban hospitals across the United States. MEASURES: Nurse surveys included measures of nurses' practice environments derived from the revised Nursing Work Index (NWI-R) and nurse outcomes measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and intentions to leave. Patients were interviewed about their satisfaction with nursing care using the La Monica-Oberst Patient Satisfaction Scale (LOPSS). RESULTS: Patients cared for on units that nurses characterized as having adequate staff, good administrative support for nursing care, and good relations between doctors and nurses were more than twice likely as other patients to report high satisfaction with their care, and their nurses reported significantly lower burnout. The overall level of nurse burnout on hospital units also affected patient satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Improvements in nurses' work environments in hospitals have the potential to simultaneously reduce nurses' high levels of job burnout and risk of turnover and increase patients' satisfaction with their care.

Nurse Education and Patient Outcomes: A Commentary

Clarke, S. P., & Connolly, C. (2004). Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 5(1), 12-20. 10.1177/1527154403261623

Nurses' working conditions: Implications for infectious disease

Stone, P. W., Clarke, S. P., Cimioiti, J., & Correa-De-Araujo, R. (2004). Emerging Infectious Diseases, 10(11), 1984-1989. 10.3201/eid1011.040253
Abstract
Abstract
Staffing patterns and nurses' working conditions are risk factors for healthcare-associated infections as well as occupational injuries and infections. Staffing shortages, especially of nurses, have been identified as one of the major factors expected to constrain hospitals' ability to deal with future outbreaks of emerging infections. These problems are compounded by a global nursing shortage. Understanding and improving nurses' working conditions can potentially decrease the incidence of many infectious diseases. Relevant research is reviewed, and policy options are discussed.

Relationship between Patient Mortality and Nurses' Level of Education [3] (multiple letters)

Atkins, S., Nygaard, J., Broome, S. J., Burger, D., Comeau, C., Crook, M., Hirsch, R., Boggs, G. R., Corcoran, R. D., Murray, J. P., Aiken, L. H., Clarke, S. P., Cheung, R. B., Sloane, D. M., & Silber, J. H. (2004, March 17). In JAMA (Vols. 291, Issues 11, pp. 1320-1323). 10.1001/jama.291.11.1320-d

Balancing staffing and safety

Clarke, S. P. (2003). Nursing Management, 34(6), 44-48. 10.1097/00006247-200306000-00018
Abstract
Abstract
Several high-profile research studies link nurse staffing and patient safety.

Educational Levels of Hospital Nurses and Surgical Patient Mortality

Aiken, L. H., Clarke, S. P., Cheung, R. B., Sloane, D. M., & Silber, J. H. (2003). JAMA, 290(12), 1617-1623. 10.1001/jama.290.12.1617
Abstract
Abstract
Context: Growing evidence suggests that nurse staffing affects the quality of care in hospitals, but little is known about whether the educational composition of registered nurses (RNs) in hospitals is related to patient outcomes. Objective: To examine whether the proportion of hospital RNs educated at the baccalaureate level or higher is associated with risk-adjusted mortality and failure to rescue (deaths in surgical patients with serious complications). Design, Setting, and Population: Cross-sectional analyses of outcomes data for 232 342 general, orthopedic, and vascular surgery patients discharged from 168 nonfederal adult general Pennsylvania hospitals between April 1, 1998, and November 30, 1999, linked to administrative and survey data providing information on educational composition, staffing, and other characteristics. Main Outcome Measures: Risk-adjusted patient mortality and failure to rescue within 30 days of admission associated with nurse educational level. Results The proportion of hospital RNs holding a bachelor's degree or higher ranged from 0% to 77% across the hospitals. After adjusting for patient characteristics and hospital structural characteristics (size, teaching status, level of technology), as well as for nurse staffing, nurse experience, and whether the patient's surgeon was board certified, a 10% increase in the proportion of nurses holding a bachelor's degree was associated with a 5% decrease in both the likelihood of patients dying within 30 days of admission and the odds of failure to rescue (odds ratio, 0.95; 95% confidence interval, 0.91-0.99 in both cases). Conclusion: In hospitals with higher proportions of nurses educated at the baccalaureate level or higher, surgical patients experienced lower mortality and failure-to-rescue rates.

Failure to rescue.

Clarke, S. P., & Aiken, L. H. (2003). The American Journal of Nursing, 103(1), 42-47. 10.1097/00000446-200301000-00020

Hospital nurse staffing, education, and patient mortality.

Aiken, L. H., Clarke, S. P., Silber, J. H., & Sloane, D. (2003). LDI Issue Brief, 9(2), 1-4.
Abstract
Abstract
A serious shortage of hospital nurses in the U.S., evident in the past decade, is expected to continue and worsen in the next 15 years. Increasingly, the public and the health professions are acknowledging that nurse understaffing represents a serious threat to patient safety in U.S. hospitals. Although anecdotal evidence has linked patient deaths to inadequate nurse staffing, the numbers and kinds of nurses needed for patient safety is unknown. This Issue Brief highlights two studies that clarify the impact of nurse staffing levels on surgical patient outcomes, and examine the effect of nurses' experience and educational level on patient mortality in the 30 days after a surgical admission.