Educational - Clinical Consultant
DAGaffney Consulting
Pacific Palisades, California
Donna A. Gaffney, DNSc, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN, is an advanced practice nurse, author and educator. She has long addressed the issues of trauma and loss in women's and children's lives. Working with prosecutors in New Jersey and New York, Dr. Gaffney designed and implemented one the first educational programs for health care providers treating sexual assault survivors in those states. With a focus on interviewing and documenting patient behaviors, she has developed tools and strategies for SANEs, advanced practice nurses and physicians working with survivors. She has taught and directed graduate programs at the International Trauma Studies Program, Columbia and Seton Hall Universities.
The needs of nurses working in high stress settings have been at the center of Dr. Gaffney’s work— forensic nurses working with victims of violence, nurses in disaster or acute care settings, and now nurses who are affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Since March of 2020 Dr. Gaffney has provided pro-bono psychotherapy through the Emotional PPE Project and facilitates Virtual Schwartz Rounds for the New Jersey Nursing Emotional Well-Being Institute to nurses working at hospital systems throughout New Jersey. Her webinar series at the beginning of the pandemic, Healing Ourselves, While Healing Others, is still offered free of charge to nurses through Rutgers University School of Nursing.
In addition to academic publications, she is the co-author of Adolescent Sexuality: A Guide for Clinicians and several chapters in books on sexual assault assessment. She has contributed to Sexual Assault Report and The International Journal of Forensic Nursing. In addition to master’s degrees from Teachers College at Columbia University and Rutgers University, she has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Donna was also a Fellow at Columbia University School of Journalism and received a post-graduate certificate from the International Trauma Studies. In 2021 she received the American Psychiatric Nurses Association Award for Excellence in Practice - APRN. Her book Courageous Well-Being for Nurse: Strategies for Renewal will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in August 2023.
