Connie Ulrich, PhD, RN is a nurse bioethicist and the Lillian S. Brunner Endowed Chair in Medical and Surgical Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, where she is a Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. She also holds a secondary appointment at the Perelman School of Medicine in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Dr. Ulrich received postdoctoral training in bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Department of Bioethics. Dr. Ulrich’s research has developed conceptual frameworks and designed measures to uncover and test the impact that ethical issues have on health care providers, researchers, patients and families, and outcomes of care.
Dr. Ulrich has received federal funding from the NIH (NCI and NINR) to better understand factors that influence the retention of cancer clinical trial participants and issues related to informed consent. Her funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) focuses on the moral distress and moral injury of nurses, linking it to patient outcomes. She is also funded by Fogarty International for global work in Tanzania on developing and building bioethics infrastructure.
Dr. Ulrich’s research and commentaries have been published in medicine, nursing, bioethics, and other professional and lay consumer forums. Dr. Ulrich’s books entitled “Moral Distress in the Professions” and “Nurses and COVID-19: Ethical Considerations in Pandemic Care” highlight clinicians’ ethical challenges in providing care. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a Salzburg global seminar Fellow, a Sigma Theta Tau International Hall of Fame Nurse Researcher honoree, and was recently selected as a Hastings Center fellow.