Informatics Expert Linda Harrington to Receive AACN Award for Distinguished Career
The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses () honors Linda Harrington, PhD, DNP, RN, NI-BC, UXC, FHIMSS, FAMIA, with its 2025 .
Harrington receives the award for her leadership and exceptional contributions, which enhance the care of critically ill patients and their families and the nurses who care for them, and further AACN’s mission and vision. The presentation will occur during the 2025 in New Orleans, May 19-21.
Harrington is considered one of the leading experts in informatics specializing in interactive design, with a subspecialty in artificial intelligence (AI). She maintains an active practice in AI and informatics (AI and I), while also contributing to policy and scientific advancements. She has spoken in Washington, D.C. before members of Congress and their staff on nurses’ use of technology in healthcare. She has also spoken with Texas state legislators and staff.
In executive leadership roles, Harrington has overseen nursing informatics in large healthcare systems, serving as vice president for advancing nursing practice at Baylor Health Care System and vice president and chief nursing informatics officer at Catholic Health Initiatives, as well as numerous AI and I consulting positions. She taught informatics as a professor at Baylor College of Medicine and as a consulting associate at Duke University.
Her current research focuses on designing health apps to help change health behaviors, and she is employing document analysis to examine the role technology design played in the RaDonda Vaught case.
A prolific author, she has served as the Technology Today section editor for AACN Advanced Critical Care for over 10 years. Harrington is also co-chair of the current edition of the American Nurses Association’s Nursing Informatics: Scope and Standards of Practice.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from University of Texas (UT) Health Science Center at San Antonio, a master’s degree from UT Arlington, and a PhD in nursing from Texas Woman’s University, Denton. She completed a post-graduate certificate in nursing informatics and earned a doctor of nursing practice, with a focus on nursing informatics, at Duke University.
Board certified, Harrington received advanced training in AI at MIT Professional Education and Harvard Medical School Executive Education. In addition, she completed courses on AI with the National Institute of Health Informatics in Canada and the National Institute of Nursing Research in Bethesda, Maryland.
She served a three-year term on the AACN Board of Directors, followed by serving as chair-elect and then chair of the AACN Certification Corporation board. Harrington was named a fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association, where she also received an AMIA Leadership Award. She is also a fellow of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
About the Marguerite Rodgers Kinney Award: Established in 1997 and named for an AACN past president, the Marguerite Rodgers Kinney Award for a Distinguished Career recognizes extraordinary and distinguished professional contributions that further AACN’s mission and vision of a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and their families where acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution. Recipients of this Visionary Leadership Award receive a $1,000 gift to the charity of their choice and a crystal replica of the presidential “Vision” icon. Other Visionary Leadership awards, AACN’s highest honor, include the Lifetime Membership Award and the AACN Pioneering Spirit Award.
About the National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition: Established in 1974, AACN’s National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition (NTI) is the world’s largest educational conference and trade show for nurses who care for acutely and critically ill patients and their families. Bedside nurses, nurse educators, nurse managers, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners attend NTI.
About the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses: For more than 50 years, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has been dedicated to acute and critical care nursing excellence. The organization’s vision is to create a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and their families in which acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution. AACN is the world's largest specialty nursing organization, with about 130,000 members and nearly 200 chapters in the United States.
American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 27071 Aliso Creek Road, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656; 949-362-2000; www.aacn.org; facebook.com/aacnface; x.com/aacnme
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