Message from the Associate Dean

Yale University

The Office of Clinical Affairs creates mechanisms to support faculty who maintain a clinical practice in addition to their teaching and scholarship activities. It facilitates synergy among faculty's practice, teaching, and scholarship, provides leadership in designing innovative approaches to delivering quality health care to individuals and families, facilitates the conversion of clinical and health services knowledge into policy, and administers the YSN Faculty Practice Group.

YSN has long been known for its clinical expertise and emphasis on providing direct health care services to the community. Over half of the faculty maintain a clinical practice and spend a considerable amount of their time in clinical settings. Such a high number of the faculty who provide direct patient care is not the norm among nursing education institutions, especially those institutions that have developed as extensive and productive a research base as Yale.

For the past 80 years, YSN has had a tremendous impact on the health of individuals and families in our local community. YSN faculty has spearheaded the development of new strategies to minimize the effects of diabetes and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. They have created new models to care for the chronically ill; put in place new technology to bring cardiac care into the home setting; and developed new programs to reduce disparities in health. And, they have responded to the health care needs of women by establishing a Women's Health and Midwifery practice. This practice provides comprehensive health services for women in Greater New Haven. These and other groundbreaking initiatives continue to meet the emerging needs of patients, demonstrate better ways to deliver care, provide cutting-edge learning opportunities for students, allow for continuous generation of new knowledge and provide real data to inform policy development.

By supporting the YSN faculty to provide direct patient care, the Office of Clinical Affairs is furthering the YSN mission to improve health care for all people.