Sean Clarke

Faculty

Sean Clarke Headshot

Sean Clarke

PhD RN FAAN

Ursula Springer Professor in Nursing Leadership

1 212 998 5264

433 First Ave
New York, NY 10010
United States

Sean Clarke, PhD, RN, FAAN is the Ursula Springer Professor in Nursing Leadership at the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. He is a nursing health services researcher with interests in quality and safety of nursing care, nurse workforce issues, management of nursing services, as well as questions related to health systems changes and their impacts on the nursing profession. He has taught nursing leadership and professional issues, health policy, research, and clinical science courses in universities in the United States, Canada, and beyond. He currently the Editor-in-Chief of Nursing Outlook, the official journal of the American Academy of Nursing and serves on a number of editorial boards and grant review panels.

Prof. Clarke is currently co-principal investigator of Towards Magnet 3.0, a multimethod evaluation study of the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program, and principal investigator of the evaluation of the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation’s $51 million 5- year Nursing Initiative that is supporting workforce strategies in 13 hospitals caring for vulnerable populations in New York State.

Prior to joining the faculty at NYU Meyers, Clarke was a tenured faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Toronto, and McGill University and held endowed chairs and codirected and directed research centers and other initiatives at those institutions before serving as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs at Boston College’s Connell School of Nursing from 2014 to 2018. He served as Executive Vice Dean at NYU Meyers from 2019 to 2024.

Among his many honors, Clarke was named a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2006. He has held visiting and honorary appointments at universities around the world, and in 2025 received the Academy’s Civitas Award, which recognizes extraordinary dedication to excellence in promoting quality care.

Post-MS certificate, Adult Critical Care Nurse Practitioner, University of Pennsylvania
PhD, Nursing, McGill University
MSc(A), Nursing, McGill University
BA, Psychology, Carleton University
BSc, Biochemistry-Nutrition, University of Ottawa

Acute Care
Adult Health
Health Services Research
Health Outcomes
Health Policy
Nursing Leadership
Nursing Professional Issues
Nurse Occupational Health
Nursing workforce

American Nurses Association
American Academy of Nursing
Sigma Theta Tau International

Civitas Award, American Academy of Nursing (2025)
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)
Class of 1965 25th Reunion Term Chair, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing [for enduring contributions to undergraduate education] (2006)
Fellow, American Academy of Nursing (2006)
Junior Faculty Research Award, Biobehavioral and Health Sciences Division School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania (2006)
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., 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)

Rapid‐fire strategies for regulatory readiness

Carrick, L., Cutts, G. H., Chodoff, S., & Clarke, S. (2007). In Nursing Management (Vols. 38, Issues 11, pp. 28-33). 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000299210.70758.a7
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Registered nurse staffing and patient outcomes in acute care looking back, pushing forward

Clarke, S. (2007). In Medical care (Vols. 45, Issues 12, pp. 1126-1128). 10.1097/MLR.0b013e31815ccaaf
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A salute to our reviewers : Partners in the scientific endeavour

Gottlieb, L. N., & Clarke, S. (2007). In Canadian Journal of Nursing Research (Vols. 39, Issues 4, pp. 5-9).
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Sharp-device injuries to hospital staff nurses in 4 countries

Clarke, S., Schubert, M., & Körner, T. (2007). In Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (Vols. 28, Issues 4, pp. 473-478). 10.1086/513445
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OBJECTIVE. To compare sharp-device injury rates among hospital staff nurses in 4 Western countries. DESIGN. Cross-sectional survey. SETTING. Acute-care hospital nurses in the United States (Pennsylvania), Canada (Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario), the United Kingdom (England and Scotland), and Germany. PARTICIPANTS. A total of 34,318 acute-care hospital staff nurses in 1998-1999. RESULTS. Survey-based rates of retrospectively-reported needlestick injuries in the previous year for medical-surgical unit nurses ranged from 146 injuries per 1,000 full-time equivalent positions (FTEs) in the US sample to 488 injuries per 1,000 FTEs in Germany. In the United States and Canada, very high rates of sharp-device injury among nurses working in the operating room and/or perioperative care were observed (255 and 569 injuries per 1,000 FTEs per year, respectively). Reported use of safety-engineered sharp devices was considerably lower in Germany and Canada than it was in the United States. Some variation in injury rates was seen across nursing specialties among North American nurses, mostly in line with the frequency of risky procedures in the nurses' work. CONCLUSIONS. Studies conducted in the United States over the past 15 years suggest that the rates of sharp-device injuries to front-line nurses have fallen over the past decade, probably at least in part because of increased awareness and adoption of safer technologies, suggesting that regulatory strategies have improved nurse safety. The much higher injury rate in Germany may be due to slow adoption of safety devices. Wider diffusion of safer technologies, as well as introduction and stronger enforcement of occupational safety and health regulations, are likely to decrease sharp-device injury rates in various countries even further.

Supplemental nurse staffing in hospitals and quality of care

Aiken, L. H., Xue, Y., Clarke, S., & Sloane, D. M. (2007). In Journal of Nursing Administration (Vols. 37, Issue 7-8, pp. 335-342). 10.1097/01.NNA.0000285119.53066.ae
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To promote evidence-based decision making regarding hospital staffing, the authors examined the characteristics of supplemental nurses, as well as the relationship of supplemental staff to nurse outcomes and adverse events. The use of supplemental nurses to bolster permanent nursing staff in hospitals is widespread but controversial. Quality concerns have been raised regarding the use of supplemental staff. Data from the 2000 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses were used to determine whether the qualifications of supplemental nurses working in hospitals differed from permanent staff nurses. Data from Pennsylvania nurse surveys were analyzed to examine whether nurse outcomes and adverse events differed in hospitals with varying proportions of nonpermanent nurses. Temporary nurses have qualifications similar to permanent staff nurses. Deficits in patient care environments in hospitals employing more temporary nurses explain the association between poorer quality and temporary nurses. Negative perceptions of temporary nurses may be unfounded.

Validation of the basel extent of rationing of nursing care instrument

Schubert, M., Glass, T. R., Clarke, S., Schaffert-Witvliet, B., & De Geest, S. (2007). In Nursing research (Vols. 56, Issues 6, pp. 416-424). 10.1097/01.NNR.0000299853.52429.62
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Background: Financial constraints and other forces affecting health care in many countries have led to nurses implicitly limiting their care in some instances. In the absence of an accepted definition and theoretical framework of implicit rationing of nursing care, a framework and the Basel Extent of Rationing of Nursing Care (BERNCA) instrument were developed. This instrument was used in the Swiss part of the International Hospital Outcome Study, in which implicit rationing of nursing care was studied. Objective: To examine the validity and reliability of the newly developed BERNCA instrument. Methods: Psychometric analysis was performed on data from 957 nurses in five Swiss acute care hospitals enrolled in a larger hospital organization study. An explanatory factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to investigate the instrument's internal structure, Spearman correlations were used to test relationships between implicit rationing and two related concepts, and Cronbach's alpha and interitem correlations were used to test the reliability of the scale. Results: Expert feedback confirmed that the BERNCA covered the implicit rationing of nursing care domain adequately and that its questions were fully comprehensible. The single-factor solution confirmed the instrument's unidimensional internal structure. A moderate to strong correlation in the expected direction was found between the BERNCA implicit rationing data and the quality of the nurse work environment as measured by the Nursing Work Index-Revised, particularly the perceived adequacy of nursing resources, although a significant but low correlation was also shown with patient-to-nurse ratios. Cronbach's alphas (.93) and interitem correlations indicated internal consistency and homogeneity. Discussion: Initial evidence of the validity and reliability of the BERNCA instrument was provided.

Commentary on West E, Barron DN and Reeves R (2005) Overcoming the barriers to patient-centred care : Time, tools and training. Journal of Clinical Nursing 14, 435-443

Clarke, S. (2006). In Journal of Clinical Nursing (Vols. 15, Issues 5, pp. 645-646). 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01267.x
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Conseils aux auteurs. Les quatre principaux motifs de rejet d'un manuscrit.

Clarke, S. (2006). In Perspective infirmière : revue officielle de l'Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (Vols. 3, Issues 3, pp. 35-39).
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Internet research in an international context

Baernholdt, M., & Clarke, S. (2006). In Applied Nursing Research (Vols. 19, Issue 1, pp. 48-50). 10.1016/j.apnr.2005.09.001
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Computers and the Internet provide researchers with new options in surveying. When using electronic surveys, several practical and methodological issues need to be considered such as whether the majority of the surveyed population has Internet access and whether an e-mail or a Web-based survey is most appropriate. Other important considerations relate to Internet security issues and, in international research, the possibility of language barriers. Despite these challenges, electronic surveys offer a promising alternative to conventional mail surveys.

Maximize your efficiency : a staff report.

Clarke, S., Cox, S., Hader, R., Raso, R., & Sherrod, D. (2006). In Nursing Management (Vols. 37, Issues 12, pp. 58-60).
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