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)

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

Clarke, S. (2004). In Applied Nursing Research (Vols. 17, Issues 2, pp. 134-136). 10.1016/j.apnr.2004.03.002
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Made in Canada? In search of a national research identity

Clarke, S., & Gottlieb, L. N. (2004). In Canadian Journal of Nursing Research (Vols. 36, Issues 4, pp. 3-6).
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Nurse burnout and patient satisfaction.

Vahey, D. C., Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., Clarke, S., & Vargas, D. (2004). In Medical care (Vols. 42, Issue 2 Suppl, pp. II57-66). 10.1097/01.mlr.0000109126.50398.5a
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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., & Connolly, C. (2004). In Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice (Vols. 5, Issue 1, pp. 12-20). 10.1177/1527154403261623
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Nurses' working conditions : Implications for infectious disease

Stone, P. W., Clarke, S., Cimioiti, J., & Correa-De-Araujo, R. (2004). In Emerging Infectious Diseases (Vols. 10, Issues 11, pp. 1984-1989). 10.3201/eid1011.040253
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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., Cheung, R. B., Sloane, D. M., & Silber, J. H. (2004). In Journal of the American Medical Association (Vols. 291, Issues 11, pp. 1320-1323). 10.1001/jama.291.11.1320-d
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Balancing staffing and safety

Clarke, S. (2003). In Nursing Management (Vols. 34, Issues 6, pp. 44-48). 10.1097/00006247-200306000-00018
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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., Cheung, R. B., Sloane, D. M., & Silber, J. H. (2003). In JAMA (Vols. 290, Issues 12, pp. 1617-1623). 10.1001/jama.290.12.1617
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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., & Aiken, L. H. (2003). In The American journal of nursing (Vols. 103, Issue 1, pp. 42-47). 10.1097/00000446-200301000-00020
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Hospital nurse staffing, education, and patient mortality.

Aiken, L. H., Clarke, S., Silber, J. H., & Sloane, D. (2003). In LDI issue brief (Vols. 9, Issues 2, pp. 1-4).
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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.