Nickie Burney
Sharran Nicolle (“Nickie”) Burney, MSN, CNP, FNP-BC, of the Division of Endocrinology’s Diabetes Management Service, recently received one of the greatest honors of her career: a health equity scholarship from the Nurses Educational Funds, Inc. (NEF) and Johnson & Johnson.
“It is the first formal recognition of my research as belonging in the health equity space,” said Burney, a PhD candidate and third-year research fellow at the Connell School of Nursing at Boston College. “It’s almost impossible to summarize how much this honor has bolstered my efforts and validated me as a developing investigator.”
The $10,000 scholarship was given to five doctoral nursing students nationally this year in recognition of their work to advance health equity. Burney was selected for her research, which investigates how hospital environments shape diabetes outcomes among vulnerable populations. She is currently working on a secondary analysis exploring the prevalence rates and occupational risks of diabetes among essential hospital workers in conjunction with her tenure as a visiting scholar at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“Nickie’s dedication to exceptional patient care and commitment to advancing health equity outcomes goes above and beyond,” said Lindsay Harris, MBA, APRN, NE-BC, interim senior director of Advanced Practice Nursing and a nurse practitioner in the Cardiac Arrhythmia Service. “She turns compassion into transformative action by researching the very environments that shape the outcomes of vulnerable patient populations. We are incredibly fortunate to have her as part of our APRN community.”
Burney is quick to credit others for supporting her throughout her career.
“This scholarship is a testament to the fact that I have long been well supported, well mentored and educated by clinicians and clinician-scientists at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Simmons University and Boston College,” she said. “I have never been more grateful.”
Burney’s nursing career was inspired by her mother who returned to school and became an LPN when Burney was in middle school. After graduating from the University of North Carolina and moving to Boston, Burney worked as an administrative assistant for five years in Cardiac Electrophysiology at Mass General Hospital. She left to go to nursing school and began her career as a nurse at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in 2009. She continued her education and became a nurse practitioner, working in the Diabetes Management Services and per diem at BWFH’s FACT Hospitalist Service.
Committed to lifelong learning, Burney is now working on her PhD and training to become a nurse scientist. She hopes to divide her time among research, clinical practice and academia.
“I have always been drawn to research and healthcare as tools for improving population health. However, clinicians get to care for and learn from actual people, and I cannot think of anything better than that,” she said. “As an NP, I can combine multiple disciplinary perspectives and use a collective wisdom from the health sciences to serve the needs of patients. NPs practice from a unique, patient-centered lens that is enormously fulfilling.”
To learn more about Burney’s scholarship and career, click here.