A Homecoming for New Faculty By debra bradley ruder
As a faculty member, Catherine Conahan, D.N.P., NP-BC, brings her extensive experience and passion for teaching, research, and caring for patients with complex medical situations to the Connell School. Conahan staffs the nursing office at Cristo Rey Boston High School, which serves families of limited resources. There, she performs physicals, assists with COVID-19 protocols, addresses conditions from asthma to injuries, and helps connect teens with medical specialists when needed. Working with Connell School nurse practitioner (NP) students, Conahan provides care for adolescents who, she says, tend to need more care than those who come from more privileged backgrounds. “One student came in with a stomach ache, and after an assessment, we found out it was because he hadn’t eaten for two days,” Conahan recalls. “Health inequities are real, and we are trying to help.” Conahan received a bachelor of science in nursing from Georgetown University and realized she wanted to become a nurse practitioner while working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “[The NPs] were very well respected and seemed to be the ultimate collaborators,” she says. In 2015, Conahan earned a master of science degree from New York University to become an adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner. After returning to Boston (her hometown), she spent several years in oncology care and research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Wanting to stay competitive and pursue a teaching career, she enrolled in CSON’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program. She especially valued its courses in leadership and quality improvement, and the opportunity to co-lead a clinical scholarship project, aimed at improving practice, with several colleagues. She graduated from the program in December 2020. Conahan, who is married with two young children, became a part-time faculty member last spring and helped develop the nursing office at Cristo Rey, which previously had no school nurse. Now full time, she continues to precept the Connell NP students who help out at Cristo Rey and support D.N.P. candidates conducting clinical scholarship there. She has also begun studying the impact of the nursing office’s services.
Catherine Conahan Clinical Assistant Professor
This fall, Conahan is teaching Role of the Advanced Practice Nurse at CSON. “I am very excited to be teaching at BC,” Conahan says. “I often had Connell NP students working with me at Cristo Rey [last spring], and it was always the highlight of my day to teach them something new, or watch them pick up a new skill or interview technique.”
14 voice | fall 2021
