Know Your Professor With Zhyryn!
Welcome back to Know Your Professor With Zhyryn, a weekly feature of The Cadre! Each week, we spotlight a professor from a different faculty to help students get to know the people behind their lessons. From academic paths to teaching philosophies, and even hobbies outside the classroom, this series helps build stronger connections across campus.
This week, we turned to the Faculty of Nursing, where I had the chance to sit down with Professor Nancy Clark, a nurse practitioner and one of the newest members of UPEI. Professor Nancy began her role in October 2024 and relocated to Prince Edward Island in December. Her passion for patient care and her enthusiasm for teaching shine through in every part of her story.
Professor Nancy first completed a Bachelor of Arts with a double Major in Psychology and English at St. Francis Xavier University. After finishing her degree, she explored professional programs and realized that nursing might be her path. She shared, “Nursing is in the family. My mom is a nurse and my grandmother was a midwife, so I thought I should look into nursing.” She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and began working as an emergency nurse throughout Nova Scotia.
In the early 2000s, she moved to Calgary and joined the cardiac ICU at the Foothills Medical Centre. There, a nurse manager asked her what she wanted her nursing role to look like. She recalled, “I really wanted to be accessible to patients and support their care. I wanted to look at independent practice and what that could be in an interdisciplinary team.” She soon joined a new nurse practitioner program and graduated in 2003 with a post-master’s degree in acute care.
Her interest in patient experiences led her to pursue a PhD at the University of Calgary. She focused on younger men under 55 who had survived two heart attacks before that age. She explained, “There wasn’t anything in the literature that talked about that, and I wanted to know what it was like to be working full time, having children, and going through this.” Her research encouraged her to explore more teaching opportunities, ultimately leading her to UPEI.
Professor Nancy teaches both undergraduate and nurse practitioner students. What she loves most is watching students make connectionsbetween theory and practice. “I really enjoy seeing students get excited when clinical concepts begin to make sense,” she said. She explained that every lesson supports the role of the nurse in guiding patients through many stages of care, whether they are recovering or approaching the end of life. Engagement is central to her teaching approach. She believes that building trust begins with simple gestures like learning names. “It is a big deal for me to know who you are,” she said.
For students beginning university, Professor Nancy encourages patience and self-confidence. She noted that the transition to independent learning can be difficult and said, “Be kind to yourself. You are not going to be great at everything at the same time, and that is okay.” She loves attending concerts, folk festivals, and singer–songwriter circles, and finds joy in celebrating the creativity of others.
