Sara W. Day, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor
Assistant Dean, Center for Community and Global Partnerships
874 Union Ave., Room 120J
Memphis, TN 38163
901.448.2397
sday5@uthsc.edu
Dr. Sara Day is a professor and Assistant Dean for the Center for Community and Global Partnerships at the University of Tennessee (UT) Health Science Center College of Nursing. Prior to joining UT Health Science Center faculty, she was the Director of Nursing Education and the Director of International Nursing at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Associate Professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Nursing.
Dr. Day’s program of research has had a measurable and sustained impact globally. Her most prominent contributions to nursing are the development, implementation, and evaluation of pioneering nursing programs and models to improve the care of children with sickle cell disease and cancer. Dr. Day's work involving children with sickle cell disease has been an integral part of her career. In the year that newborn screening for sickle cell disease was implemented nationally, she developed one of the first multi-phased education programs to support parents of infants with the disease. Program outcomes included an excellent retention rate, and a significant decrease in the rate of pneumococcal sepsis, the leading cause of death among young children with sickle cell disease. Once published, the program was replicated nationally and globally.
Dr. Day is the first author of research describing the development and evaluation of the Baseline Standards for Pediatric Oncology Nurses in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, published in Lancet Oncology, Cancer Control, and Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing. These standards address nursing barriers in low- and middle-income countries and establish a foundation for quality nursing care. The baseline standards, supported by a taskforce of global nurse researchers, have been endorsed by stakeholders in pediatric oncology worldwide and are currently published in eight languages with implementation initiatives spanning 49 sites in 29 countries.
Dr. Day has a notable record of publications in nursing and non-nursing peer reviewed journals and national and international presentations. She has 44 publications in medical and nursing journals including Lancet Oncology, New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Nursing, American Journal of Nursing, and Pediatric Blood and Cancer. Her publications have been cited more than 1,466 times, with 8,900 downloads. She has presented her work globally, including keynote presentations in Lyon, France; Santiago, Chile; London, England; and Amman, Jordan. She has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, When Everyone Survives Leukemia Research Foundation, Tennessee Hospital Association, the Centers for Disease Control, Oncology Nursing Society, Global Blood Therapeutics, and United States Department of Agriculture.
In 2014, Dr. Day was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing for her significant contributions to nursing and health care and in 2022, she was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau's International Nursing Research Hall of Fame.