Sean Clarke

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Sean Clarke, RN, PhD, FAAN

Associate Professor,
RBC Chair in Cardiovascular Nursing Research

Contact Information
Address: 155 College Street, Rm. 256
Phone: (416) 978-2853
Email: sean.clarke@utoronto.ca

Research

Dr. Sean Clarke is the inaugural holder of the RBC Chair in Cardiovascular Nursing Research at the University of Toronto and the University Health Network. His clinical and research roots are in cardiovascular care. Dr. Clarke’s research has dealt primarily with organizational aspects of acute care nursing (with a particular emphasis on staffing levels, work environment factors, patient outcomes and nurse occupational health). His current program of work deals with factors influencing the quality and safety of inpatient nursing care for patients with cardiovascular disease.

Before coming to Toronto in 2008, he served as the Associate Director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he held an endowed term chair recognizing contributions to undergraduate education at the School of Nursing. He has authored or co-authored over 50 articles, 10 book chapters and co-edited a volume on medication safety for nurses. A co-investigator on over $10 million dollars in funded grants, many of which have involved international collaborations, he has been a principal investigator on grants from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

He serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals and is currently Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research (CJNR ) and a Deputy Editor for the leading health services research journal Medical Care. A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, he holds adjunct appointments at the Université de Montréal and the University of Pennsylvania, and a visiting appointment at University College Dublin.

Degrees

2001	Postdoctoral fellowship, University of Pennsylvania
1999	Post-master’s certificate, Adult Critical Care Nurse Practitioner, University of Pennsylvania
1998	PhD, McGill University
1992	MSc(A), McGill University
1989	BA (Psychology), Carleton University
1988	BSc (Biochemistry-Nutrition), University of Ottawa

Selected Grants

Clarke, S.P. (Principal Investigator). New Nursing Graduate Competencies in Identifying Patient Clinical Deterioration: Developing an Assessment Tool. Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC), Nursing Research Fund, 2009-2011. $166,351.

Clarke, S.P. (Principal Investigator). Risk factors and incidence of sharps injuries to nurses. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, R01-OH008996, 2007-2010. $669,000.

Clarke, S.P. (Principal Investigator). Validating NQF nurse-sensitive performance measures. Grant under the Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2006-2008. $295,794.

Dubois, C.-A., D’Amour, D. (Principal Investigators). Clarke, S.P. (Co-investigator). Models of organization and deployment of nursing resources and their impact on outcomes of care. Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 2007-2010. $287,472 CAN. [Université de Montréal, Centre FERASI]

Aiken, L.H. (Principal Investigator), Clarke, S. (Co-investigator). Outcomes of nurse practice environments. National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health. R01-NR04513, 2004-2009. $3.1 million.

Clarke, S.P. (Principal Investigator), Aiken, L.H. (Sponsor). Organizational climate and hospital patient and nurse safety. National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health. K01-NR07895 Mentored Research Scientist Career Award, 2002-2005. $271,188.

De Geest, S. (Principal Investigator), Clarke S. (Coinvestigator). Rationing of nursing care in Swiss hospitals and its effects on patient outcomes and nurse shortage. Swiss Federal Office of Social Insurance, 250000CHF, 2003-2004.

Aiken, L.H. (Principal Investigator), Clarke, S. (Co-investigator). How nursing affects the volume-outcomes relationship. National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health. NR04513, 2001-2004. $1.7 million. [Study director]

Selected Publications

Clarke, S.P. (2009). Cardiac rehabilitation research: New perspectives for a new century. Journal of Research in Nursing, 14, 203-205.

Clarke, S.P. (2009). Three metaphors and a (mis)quote: thinking about staffing-outcomes research, health policy and the future of nursing. Journal of Nursing Management, 17(2), 151-154.

Flynn, L., Thomas-Hawkins, C., Clarke, S.P. (2009) Organizational traits, care processes, and burnout among chronic hemodialysis nurses. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 31(5), 569-82.

Schubert, M., Clarke, S.P., Witvliet, B., Glass, T., De Geest, S. (2009). Identifying thresholds for relationships between impacts of rationing of nursing care and nurse- and patient-reported outcomes in Swiss hospitals: A correlational study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46(7), 884-93.

Gunnarsdottir, S., Clarke, S.P., Rafferty, A.M., Nutbeam, D. (2009). Front-line management, staffing and nurse-doctor relationships as predictors of nurse and patient outcomes. A survey of Icelandic hospital nurses. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46(7), 920-927.

Van den Heede, K., Sermeus, W., Diya, L., Clarke, S.P., Lesaffre, E., Vleugels, A., Aiken, L.H. (2009). Nurse staffing and patient outcomes in Belgian acute hospitals: Cross-sectional analysis of administrative data. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46(7), 928-39.

Latimer, M., Johnson, C., Ritchie, J., Clarke, S.P., Gillin, D. (2009). Factors affecting delivery of evidence-based procedural pain care in hospitalized neonates. Journal of Obstetrical, Gynecological and Neonatal Nursing, 38, 182-194.

Van Bogaert, P., Clarke, S., Vermeyen, K., Meulemans, H., Van de Heyning, P., (2009). Practice environments and their associations with nurse-reported outcomes in Belgian hospitals: Development and preliminary validation of a Dutch adaptation of the Revised Nursing Work Index. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46(1), 54-64.

Schubert, M., Glass, T.R., Clarke, S.P., Aiken, L.H., Schaffert-Witvliet, B., Sloane, D.M., De Geest, S. (2008). Rationing of nursing care and its relationship to patient outcomes. International Journal of Quality in Health Care, 20(4), 227-37.

Clarke, S.P., Raphael, C., Disch, J. (2008). Challenges and directions for nursing in the pay-for performance movement. Policy, Politics and Nursing Practice 9(2), 127-134.

Clarke, S.P, Cheung, R.B. (2008). The nurse shortage: Where we stand and where we’re headed. Nursing Management, 39 (3), 22-27.

Van den Heede, K., Sermeus, W., Diya, L., Clarke, S.P., Lesaffre, E., Vleugels, A., Aiken, L.H. (2008, in press). Nurse staffing and patient outcomes in Belgian acute hospitals: Cross-sectional analysis of administrative data. International Journal of Nursing Studies. [Advance published on journal website July 24, 2008]

Schubert, M., Glass, T.R., Clarke, S.P., Aiken, L.H., Schaffert-Witvliet, B., Sloane, D.M., De Geest, S. (2008). Rationing of nursing care and its relationship to patient outcomes. International Journal of Quality in Health Care, 20(4), 227-37.

Aiken, L.H., Clarke, S.P., Sloane, D.M., Lake, E.T., Cheney, T. (2008). Effects of hospital care environment on patient mortality and nurse outcomes. Journal of Nursing Administration, 38(5), 223-229. [Republished in 2009 in Journal of Nursing Administration, 39(7-8 Suppl.), S45-51.]

Thomas-Hawkins, C., Flynn, L., Clarke, S.P. (2008). Relationships between registered nurse staffing, processes of nursing care, and nurse-reported patient outcomes in chronic hemodialysis units. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 35 (2), 123-130.

Schubert, M., Glass, T.R., Clarke, S.P., Schaffert-Witvliet, B., De Geest, S. (2007). Validation of the Basel Extent of Rationing of Nursing Care instrument. Nursing Research, 56(6), 416-424.

Clarke, S.P. (2007). Nurse staffing in acute care settings: Research perspectives and practice implications. Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 33 (11, Supplement), 30-44.

Van den Heede, K., Clarke, S.P., Sermeus, W., Vleugels, W., Aiken, L.H. (2007). International experts' perspectives on the state of the nurse staffing and patient outcomes literature: Results of a Delphi survey. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 39 (4), 2 90-297.

Sayers, S.L., Hanrahan, N., Kutney, A., Clarke, S.P., Reis, B.F., Riegel, B. (2007). Psychiatric comorbidity and greater hospitalization risk, longer length of stay, and higher hospitalization costs in older adults with heart failure. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 55 (10), 1585-1591.

Aiken, L.H., Xue, Y., Clarke, S.P., Sloane, D.M. (2007). Supplemental nurse staffing in hospitals and quality of care. Journal of Nursing Administration, 37 (7/8), 335-342.

Clarke S.P., Davis B.L., Nailon R.E. (2007). Racial segregation and differential outcomes in hospital care. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 29, 739-757.

Clarke, S.P. (2007). Hospital work environments, nurse characteristics and sharps injuries. American Journal of Infection Control, 35(5), 302-309.

Clarke, S.P., Schubert, M., Körner, T. (2007). Sharps injuries to hospital nurses in four countries. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, 28, 473-478.

Rafferty, A.M., Clarke, S.P., Coles, J., Ball, J., James, P., McKee, M., Aiken, L.H. (2007). Outcomes of variation in hospital nurse staffing in English hospitals: Cross-sectional analysis of survey data and discharge records. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 44(2), 175-182.

Clarke, S.P. (2006). Research on nurse staffing and its outcomes: The challenges and risks of grasping at shadows. In S. Nelson and S. Gordon (Eds.), The complexities of care: Nursing reconsidered (pp. 161-184). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Clarke, S.P. (2005). Staffing the organization for excellence. In From front office to front line: Essential issues for health care leaders (pp. 113-144). Oakbrook Terrace, IL: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Aiken, L.H., Clarke, S.P., Cheung, R.B., Sloane, D.M., Silber, J.H. (September 23, 2003). Education levels of hospital nurses and surgical patient mortality. Journal of the American Medical Association, 290, 1617-1623.