Dr. Sarah Pirani

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.