Stephanie M. Helman

Dr. Stephanie M. Helman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. Dr. Helman has 20 years of nursing experience. She practiced as a pediatric critical care nurse for 12 years, and much of that time as a certified pediatric critical care clinical nurse specialist (CNS). In this leadership role, she managed nursing practice in one of the nation’s top ranking, high acuity, pediatric cardiac intensive care units (ICU). CNS’s exercise a questioning attitude, evaluating clinical practice from a systemwide view to enable successful collaboration with large teams of stakeholders that work together to achieve common healthcare-oriented goals. During her time spent as a CNS, she discovered how vulnerable cardiac surgical neonates and children are for developing unintentional hypothermia during the perioperative period. She realized that understanding the full depth of this clinical practice phenomenon warranted rigorous research methods that were data driven, reliable, generalizable, and valid. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing in 2023 with a Doctor of Philosophy, Dr. Helman accepted a TL1 Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. This competitive and prestigious fellowship provided the resources and training needed to advance Dr. Helman’s program of research.

Research Areas & Scholarly Emphasis

Dr. Helman’s research is focused on neonates with critical congenital heart defects who require cardiopulmonary bypass during the neonatal period. Dr. Helman has strong interests in understanding neonatal temperature instability patterns during immediate postoperative recovery and the implications that this instability has for important outcomes. Additionally, she is beginning to investigate how distinct physiologies may have overlapping underlying processes. Importantly, Dr. Helman’s research has shown that temperature instability, mainly hypothermia, is more common than previously understood during this fragile postoperative recovery period. Dr. Helman utilizes large databases in collaboration with her clinical research coordinating sites. She applies unsupervised machine learning techniques and trajectory analysis to discover unique patterns in longitudinal neonatal temperature data. Elucidating how thermoregulation physiology impacts tenuous neonatal cardiac postoperative physiologies will support clinicians and clinical researchers to derive data-driven guidelines for meticulous and individualized temperature management.

Teaching

Dr. Helman’s teaching philosophy centers on strong mentorship, mutual trust, and thorough exchange of knowledge that is both coherent and applicable to real-world practice. She fosters a learning environment that is nurturing, challenging, and engaging; one that encourages curiosity and thoughtful questioning. Committed to guiding students throughout their academic journey, Dr. Helman also empowers them to recognize their potential as emerging leaders in nursing. She values diverse perspectives and believes that every individual, regardless of role, has both something to learn and something meaningful to contribute.

Service

Dr. Helman is an active member of the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing and is the chair-elect for the Pediatric Cardiovascular Nursing Committee. Here, she participates in AHA Scientific Session planning, manuscript preparation, and chairs writing groups. Dr. Helman has peer-reviewed several manuscripts for Heart and Lung, Lancet, and Critical Care Medicine.

Clinical Emphasis

Dr. Helman’s clinical focus is in Neonatal and Pediatric Critical Care Nursing.