Dr. John O'Donnell is Professor and Chair of the Department of Nurse Anesthesia and Director of the Nurse Anesthesia Program at the University of Pittsburgh. 

 

He earned his MSN (anesthesia) in 1991 and his Doctorate in Public Health with a focus in Epidemiology in 2009- both from the University of Pittsburgh.  

 

John is the Associate Director at WISER, the Winter Institute for Simulation Education, Co-Chairs the WISER Research Committee and served on the National Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Board of Directors for more than a decade.  John has received numerous honors and awards including the Pitt Chancellors Distinguished Teaching Award (2011), Cameos of Caring Award (2010) and AANA National Program Director of the Year (2006). In 2014 John was appointed as a member on the PA State Board of Nursing and continues in this role.

 

John's professional career as a nurse has spanned med-surg, oncology, PACU, obstetrics, ICU care, and since 1991- nurse anesthesia. As  Director of the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Nurse Anesthesia Program since 1994 he has led the program to a Top 10 Graduate Nurse Anesthesia Program ranking according to US News and World Report. John chairs the SEGUE (Simulation Efforts in Graduate and Undergraduate Education) Committee at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing.

​

He is widely published with over 30 peer reviewed publications and book chapters.  He was the lead author of the 2009 AHA Structured and Supported Debriefing Course and developed the GAS Debriefing Tool.  This debriefing method has now been adopted in the AHA Core Curriculum for ACLS and PALS. 

 

As  an invited speaker at local, national and international levels John is best known for his work as an education innovator, patient safety advocate and expert in healthcare simulation development and implementation.  He co-authored the iSIM (Improving Simulation Instructional Methods) course, now offered in more than 20 nations and translated into multiple languages. 

 

He has been awarded more than 3 million dollars as PI of competitive educational esearch grants.  He is Co-PI of a Coulter Foundation Innovations Grant titled “BodyExplorer: An Augmented Reality Simulation System” a project advancing to commercialization. 

​

John is a Cogzant senior consultant in the areas of faculty development, application of educational technology, organizational implementation of simulation education, simulation educational practices, patient safety, and development of quality improvement initiatives, nurse anesthesia education, and program accreditation.