Newark, New Brunswick, & Blackwood, NJ
Associate Professor, Specialty Director for the DNP Project/DNP Project Courses
Division of Advanced Nursing Practice
Newark Health Sciences
SSB 1134
(973) 972-1584
Specialty: Leadership, mentoring, obstetrics, DNP projects
Drawing on her extensive experience in both academic and clinical practice related to nursing care of children and childbearing, Dr. Tracy Vitale joined the Rutgers School of Nursing faculty in 2017 as an assistant professor. She teaches DNP Project courses while also assisting students with DNP Project development and writing of proposals, submissions to IRB, implementation of their projects, and synthesis of findings and implications on nursing practice.
Her areas of expertise include maternal newborn nursing from conception and fetal development through all aspects of perinatal nursing including care of the laboring patient, fetal assessment during labor, assessment of fetal well-being, discomforts of labor, pain management, high-risk pregnancy complications, post-partum care, physical and psychological care of the post-partum patient, newborn assessment and care, common deviations of the newborn, deviations of normal childbearing, and women’s health and family planning.
Dr. Vitale also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Trinitas School of Nursing in Elizabeth, NJ, where she teaches evening courses related to childbearing.
Earlier, she was a volunteer faculty member at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. Dr. Vitale was a nurse manager specializing in maternal fetal medicine research, as well as the out-patient maternal fetal medicine and high-risk obstetrical practices at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ, and before that as clinical coordinator and assistant nurse manager at that hospital in the labor and delivery/perinatal evaluation and treatment units. She also worked previously as a clinical instructor at the Rutgers School of Nursing, stressing the importance of evidence-based practice in order to improve patient safety and quality of care.
Earlier, she worked as a registered nurse at Saint Peter’s University Hospital and at St. Clare’s Hospital in Denville, NJ – in both cases, working with delivering mothers and newborns.
Dr. Vitale earned her doctorate in nursing practice at the Rutgers School of Nursing. Recognizing how quality and safety in patient care can be influenced by nursing leadership, the focus of her DNP project was to evaluate the impact of a statewide mentoring program for nurse leaders on leadership practices and job satisfaction. Dr. Vitale has also earned a mini-MBA program certificate. She also holds a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from The College of New Jersey.