Dr. Patricia A. Hickey is a widely recognized nurse executive, scientist, and advocate for pediatric health and workforce excellence.  She is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard University and lectures at multiple universities.   As Senior Vice President and Associate Chief Nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital, she provides clinical and strategic leadership for cardiovascular, critical care, and perioperative nursing and patient care operations.  She has advanced interprofessional programs,  clinical excellence, workforce well-being, and research-based innovation across Children’s and beyond.  With over three decades of nursing and interprofessional leadership, Dr. Hickey has built a distinguished program of research linking organizational environment characteristics to patient outcomes and policy reform. Her pioneering research demonstrated how nurse education, experience, specialty certification, and organizational culture directly impact risk-adjusted pediatric outcomes. Her work has informed standards of care, state legislation, and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ (AACN) Healthy Work Environment framework. She has co-led the design, and implementation of the CAMEO instrument as a contemporary nursing acuity tool that is used in pediatric hospitals.  Her national impact is also recognized through her leadership in the Consortium of Congenital Cardiac Measurement of Nursing Practice (C3MN4), comprised of nursing leaders and staff from children’s hospitals across North America.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Dr. Hickey has received numerous honors and awards including the Patricia A. Hickey Named Lecture and Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Nursing, from the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society, Distinguished Alumnae Award from the University of Massachusetts Boston, Distinguished Research Lecturer Award and Circle of Excellence Award from AACN and the U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award.  Her scholarship includes more than 150 publications and invited presentations worldwide.  Dr. Hickey holds a PhD in Nursing Health Policy from the University of Massachusetts Boston, MBA from Babson College, MS  in Nursing Administration from Boston University, and a BS in Nursing from Salem State University. She also serves on national advisory boards shaping pediatric care delivery and workforce policy. Dr. Hickey mentors emerging nurse leaders and scientists locally, and across the world.