She’s a first-class scientist, a battle-hardened professional – and the soul of compassion.
The founding Assistant Specialty Director of the Nurse Anesthesia program at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, Dr. Jennifer Majumdar, brings more than a decade of clinical experience and a profound dedication to education and research to the role. She is co-leading the new program with Dr. Stephen Yermal, the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Chair in Clinical Nursing, who joined Hunter in 2022.
“We are so pleased to have Dr. Jennifer Majumdar at Hunter,” said Dr. Ann Marie P. Mauro, Joan Hansen Grabe Dean of the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing. “Her incredible clinical expertise and research skills are tremendous assets as we prepare to admit our first students.”
Dr. Majumdar, who also serves as a Nurse Scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, co-led the development and accreditation of the new Nurse Anesthesia program. She established relationships with clinical partners, developed a robust curriculum, and met extensive accreditation requirements.
“This program is rigorous and challenging, but our incoming class is up to the task. Hunter-trained nurse anesthetists will be among the best in the nation,” Dr. Majumdar said.
Alongside science, Dr. Majumdar’s anesthesia practice is rooted in a profound understanding of the physical and psychological dimensions of pain.
Dr. Majumdar joined the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at MSK as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist in 2015, transitioning to the role of Nurse Scientist in 2022.
Throughout her career, she has witnessed the severity of symptoms in oncology patients, studying the relationship between preoperative anxiety and postoperative outcomes such as nausea, vomiting, and unplanned overnight admissions.
“I saw how cancer not only ravages the body, but also can cause terror that affects patients’ ability to respond to treatment and heal,” she said. “I sought ways for nurse anesthetists to lessen trauma and promote better outcomes.”
Her PhD dissertation explored the relationship between distress, pain, and coping strategies in women undergoing outpatient breast-cancer surgery. Her research identified a previously unreported period of high distress immediately after surgery, highlighting the need for supportive interventions.
Before her tenure at MSK, she was a CRNA with the Anesthesia Associates of Massachusetts group in Boston and served as Clinical Faculty in the Boston College Nurse Anesthesia Program. She holds a BSN from Washington State University, an MSN from Boston College, and a PhD from The Catholic University of America.
Her research has been published in leading journals, including the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology Journal, the Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing, and the Journal of Clinical Anesthesiology.
Dr. Majumdar is a committed leader in Nurse Anesthesia Education and oncology symptom science. She has presented her research at many national conferences, including the AANA Annual Congress and the Assembly of Didactic and Clinical Educators.
She is a member of the Early Career Editorial Board of the Asian-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing, and a member of the Geri and ME Nursing Research Grant Board of Directors at MSK. She also was the founding chair of the CRNA Council at MSK, representing more than 120 CRNAs.
