Dr. Sarah Pirani

Dr. Sarah Pirani
Position
Assistant Teaching Professor
School of Nursing
Contact
Office: HSD A442
Credentials

DNP, MSc, NP

Area of expertise

Curriculum Design, Teaching & Learning Strategies, Simulation, Nurse Practitioner Education, Primary Care, Mental Health & Psychiatry

Dr. Sarah Pirani joined the University of Victoria in 2021. She primarily teaches in the Nurse Practitioner (NP) program - both theory and practice courses. Her areas of expertise include simulation, NP education, primary care, mental health, and psychiatry. She has a keen interest in creating and implementing innovative teaching strategies to support students’ learning. In addition, she has served in leadership roles in the NP program - Curriculum & Evaluation Coordinator from May 2022 to April 2023 and successfully led a major curriculum revision, and the Acting NP Program Coordinator from May to August 2022.

Before joining UVic, she was an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii from January 2020 to July 2021, mainly teaching in the NP & Doctor of Nursing Practice (NP/DNP) combined program. As the vice-chair of the DNP curriculum committee, she effectively co-led a major DNP curriculum revision. She also spearheaded the development and implementation of several simulations. She taught at McMaster University from 2014 to 2019 in various settings - including classrooms, clinical environments, and simulation labs.

Dr. Pirani also worked as an internal medicine resident physician at the Shanghai East Hospital after graduating from Tongji University Medical School in Shanghai, China. She later transitioned her career to nursing and earned her BScN from Western University, MSc & NP from McMaster University, and DNP degree from Chatham University in Pennsylvania, USA. Furthermore, Dr. Pirani obtained the Higher Education Teaching Certificate from Harvard University as well.

Her teaching philosophy is inquiry-based and student-centered. Dr. Pirani believes that to be effective, teaching needs to be student-centered and that students need to be equal partners in the learning process. She strives to create a safe and welcoming environment that accommodates a variety of learning styles. She helps students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills and enhance their ability to collaborate and communicate effectively with others. Her goals include helping students learn the material at hand and fostering their intellectual curiosity and spirit for lifelong learning. She often asks thought-provoking questions to help students transition from simply memorizing the content to thinking critically and connecting the concepts to everyday examples.

Teaching

I have taught a variety of courses in the NP program, covering both theory and clinical practice components. My teaching portfolio includes foundational and advanced topics designed to support diagnostic reasoning, clinical decision-making, and comprehensive primary health care.

  • NUNP 531 – Applied Pathophysiology
  • NUNP 541 – Advanced Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning Practice
  • NUNP 543 – Primary Health Care 1 (Adult Theory)
  • NUNP 546 – Integrated Primary Health Care & Advanced Practice Nursing Practica II
  • NUNP 548 – Primary Health Care III (Practicum)
  • NUNP 537 – Family Nurse Practitioner Internship

Publications

  1. Ziegler, E., Dickson, K., Silva, A., Pirani, S., Tyerman, J. & Luctkar-Flude, M. (2025). Essential primary health care skills: Virtual simulations for nurse practitioner education. Nurse Educator, 50(3), 149-154.

  2. Pirani, S. (2025). Infant. In Dames, S., Luctkar-Flude, M., & Tyerman, J. (Eds). Edelman and Kudzma’s Canadian Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span. (2nd ed, chap. 13). Elsevier.

  3. Pirani, S., Freemyer, B., Furuta, S., Teruya, K., Oba, Y., Detor, L., Furutani, T., Peterman, K., Tamura, K., & Wong, L. (2022). Efficacy of interprofessional sport concussion simulation training for health care students and teacher candidates. Journal of Interprofessional Education and Practice, 28, 100516.

  4. Pirani, S. (2021). Learn With the Aging Patients. Nurse Educator, 46(6), 348.

  5. Pirani, S. (2020). Implementation of a wound care education project to improve the wound care competency among psychiatric nurses: A quality improvement project and feasibility study. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 27(6), 709–717.

Grants

2024–2026
Principal Investigator
Project: Evaluate the impact of two teaching methods on nurse practitioner students’ diagnostic reasoning skills: Virtual diagnostic reasoning simulation versus real-life clinical cases and post-encounter reflection
Funding Source: CAN-Sim (Canadian Association of Nurse Educators Using Simulation) – Research & Innovation Grant
Total Funding: $2,000
Team: Pirani, S. (PI), Tyerman, J.

2023–2025
Co-Investigator
Project: Co-developing a research plan to identify roles, optimal resource allocation, and educational preparation for NPs in acute care settings in Island Health
Funding Source: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
Total Funding: $15,000
Team: Sawchuck, D. (PI), Pirani, S. (Co-I), et al.

2022–2023
Principal Investigator
Project: Developing and piloting a new model to guide NP student assessment and learning in clinical settings
Funding Source: University of Victoria, Human and Social Development (HSD) Internal Teaching Grant
Total Funding: $7,500
Team: Pirani, S. (PI), Nutton, J. (Co-I), et al.