The Point of Care Network has named Heather Jackson, PhD, APRN, FNP-BC, America’s top nurse practitioner for pain management.
Jackson treats patients at the supportive and palliative oncology clinic at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and is an associate professor in Clinical Nursing at Vanderbilt University. The Point of Care Network, the nation’s largest community of advanced practice clinicians, each year recognizes outstanding nurse practitioners and physician assistants at the apex of their medical specialties. One winner is selected for each category. The 2024 honorees were recently announced during National Nurse Practitioner Week.
Jackson, who is a nationally recognized pain clinician, has served as the administrative director of Advanced Practice at Vanderbilt-Ingram since 2019. She has served in different capacities at Vanderbilt University Medical Center since August 2006 when she started at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt as a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit.
As a nurse practitioner, she cared for pediatric trauma and surgery patients before joining the Vanderbilt Interventional Pain Clinic at One Hundred Oaks. She was director for Advanced Practice for outpatient neuroscience, orthopaedics and surgery before transferring to Vanderbilt-Ingram. As a nursing scientist, Jackson has advanced the use of acupuncture and acupressure for the treatment of pain and opioid dependence in neonatal and adult populations.
She is also a leader of state and national initiatives to advance care. She served on the Tennessee Department of Health Chronic Pain and Buprenorphine Guidelines Committee, was co-chair of the Pain Specialty Practice Group for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, chaired the American Society of Regional Anesthesia Pain Medicine NP/PA/RN Specialty Interest Group, and served on the board of directors for the Tennessee Pain Society and ONE Tennessee and as vice president of the Tennessee Nurses Association.
Jackson earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Master of Science in nursing at Middle Tennessee State University and PhD in nursing science at the Medical University of South Carolina.
