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Rosemary Polomano: Associate Dean for Practice at Penn Nursing

caption: Rosemary Polomano

Rosemary Polomano, professor of pain practice, has been appointed Associate Dean for Practice at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing).

Dr. Polomano will provide strategic vision and leadership for practice and community engagement. She will work closely with the School’s Assistant Dean for Community Engagement and the Associate Deans for Academic Programs and Research/Innovation, as well as the Department Chairs, to ensure the integration of practice, education and research. Dr. Polomano will also collaborate with the Chief Nursing Officers at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Veteran’s Administration to advance clinical practice priorities. 

Dr. Polomano is a well-recognized researcher, clinician and educator. She has a national and international reputation for advancing the science of understanding and treating pain. Her research focuses on clarifying and identifying mechanisms for neuropathic pain, and the impact of pain prevention strategies on short- and long-term pain outcomes for active military service members and veterans, and on the treatment-related pain of cancer patients. She also has programs of research in measurement science. One outcome of her research has been the development and testing of a patient-reported outcomes measurement tool for pain (the American Pain Society-Patient Outcomes Questionnaire–Revised (APS-POQ-R)) with a team of investigators, which she co-led. This instrument is being used around the world and translated into numerous languages. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Nursing Research and the Department of Defense.

Dr. Polomano’s research is grounded in her clinical practice as an advanced practice registered nurse and as a clinician educator. As a nurse scientist, she collaborates with nurses and physicians to translate research and evidence-based practice guidelines into clinical care. She has co-authored numerous national evidence-based guidelines and expert consensus reports to advance care for patients and serves as a magnet appraiser for the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Recognition Program, further assuring the highest quality nursing care in our nation’s hospitals.

She serves as co-director of the University of Pennsylvania’s NIH-designated Center of Excellence in Pain Education, where she leads an interprofessional course on pain science and practice with the schools of nursing, dentistry and medicine, as well as with schools of pharmacy.

Dr. Polomano is a senior nurse scientist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and also holds a secondary appointment as professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the Perelman School of Medicine.

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