Clinical Nurse 2
University of California Davis Medical Center
I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Sarah St.Claire is an Operating Room Nurse at UC Davis Children’s Hospital’s Children’s Surgery Center in Sacramento, California. Sarah took a meandering path to the nursing profession, but has always had a passion for anatomy, teaching, and education. Sarah began her advanced education in pursuit of a career as a scientific and medical illustrator. While earning a Bachelor’s degree in Biological and Pre-Medical Illustration at Iowa State University (ISU), she worked at Engineering Animation, Inc. on the National Library of Medicine’s Visible Human Project. This project entailed creating the first fully 3-D rendered digital model of the human body, based on tracings of cadaver cross-sections. This was a revolutionary visualization tool for teaching anatomy, as students could explore and manipulate parts of the human body from their laptops. The curriculum at ISU was an intense intersection of both art and scientific studies. She was also selected for an internship at ISU’s School of Veterinary Medicine to complete illustrations for a surgical atlas of Greyhound anatomy. Following undergraduate studies, Sarah sought advanced education in medical illustration at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Department of Biomedical Visualization. UIC offered a modern approach to preparing students to become visual educators, including coursework in: 3-D computer animation, web development, prosthetics, and digital anatomical and surgical illustration. While working on her Master’s degree, she completed an internship at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, creating a comprehensive online field guide of their mycology collection. Graduating valedictorian, she earned her Master’s Degree in Science with her thesis focus on the application of modern computer technologies in instructional design. Post-graduation Sarah brought her illustration talents to the Chicago-based medical advertising agency Topin and Associates, Inc., and later took a position with Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. as a staff illustrator. While there she was the lead medical illustrator in a large-scale project to recreate all CIBA-owned medical illustrations by the late surgeon and illustrator Frank Netter, MD. Ultimately Sarah’s passion for science and anatomy extended beyond illustration and she earned an Associate’s Degree in Nursing at Sacramento City College, followed by a Bachelor’s in Science in Nursing from California State University at Chico, CA. Her first position as an operating room nurse was at Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Sacramento, CA. She was later accepted into the UCD OR Training Program, and ultimately accepted a position as a pediatric operating room nurse. Sarah also continues to create graphics for the unit, as well as publication-related images for colleagues. She eagerly embraced the opportunity to produce graphics for UCD’s upcoming craniopagus conjoined twin separation.