Brittany Holliday, '10, An Award-Winning Healer and Nursing Leader
By Tony Scott
Brittany Holliday, '10, recently earned the Advocate Health Care Nurse of the Year Award in 2024. (Photo: Advocate Health Care)
Brittany Holliday, ’10, has shown herself to be a leader and quality professional at her job as a nurse, recently earning Advocate Health Care's Nurse of the Year Award as well as Advocate Sherman Hospital’s Transformational Leadership Award in 2024.
More than 1,200 nominations were submitted. Nominations were submitted by clinicians and teammates and reviewed by peer committees for blinded judging according to each nominee’s passion for patient care, commitment to service, solution-oriented abilities and evidence-based practice.
Holliday's foundation of excellence was formed while a nursing student at NIU, with help from the generosity of donors who supported scholarships.
Holliday received merit scholarships as well as the Harold W. Finney and Janet P. Finney Medical Memorial Scholarship and the Dr. Irving and Roseanne K. Frank Scholarship in Nursing
“I chose NIU because it was close to home and I could still be near my friends and family in the area,” she said. “I was fortunate enough to receive scholarships and grants to attend and pay for my schooling.”
Holliday currently serves as patient care leader at the hospital, based in Elgin, Illinois, in its Adult Medical Unit.
“I am a charge nurse, helping to support the other nurses and staff on the unit, ensuring the patients get safe and quality care,” she said. “I have been involved in professional governance since 2018. In 2022, I was elected as the first nurse staff president at Sherman. Over the next two years, I helped create new workflows and communication processes to improve the nurses' understanding of professional governance and give a voice to the bedside nurse.”
She described the challenges and rewards of working in the nursing profession at the leadership level.
“The most challenging part of my job is seeing patients who don't get better, despite our interventions,” she said. “The most rewarding part is working side-by-side with wonderful nurses and assistants who support each other and lift each other up, despite the challenges.”
She grew up in and still lives in Sycamore, Illinois, near he NIU campus. Her mother also works in healthcare. Before coming to NIU, Holliday was involved in her schools' music programs, playing the cello, and in athletics, including cheerleading and track and field, throwing shotput and discus.
Holliday recalls her NIU experience as awesome.
“My freshman year I was in the honors program, and through that program is where I met my core group of friends that I maintained through college,” she said. “It was nice because we were all in the same classes together, making it easy to form friendships. Through that program, I joined the Lambda Sigma Honors Society with my friends and participated in activities through there.”
She added, “I had many positive experiences and impacts from many of my teachers while in attendance."
She recommends that nursing students experiencing NIU for the first time to connect with their peers.
“Lean on your fellow classmates, do the study groups and have fun together,” she said. “Those people can be your lifelong friends.”
In addition to the Bachelor of Science in nursing she received from NIU, Holliday earned her medical-surgical and gerontological nursing certifications.
Holliday described her fellow Huskies as being able to persevere and work through challenges.
“A true Huskie is someone who is engaged and willing to do the work; someone that, despite obstacles in their way, can persevere and overcome," she said. "Along with that is determination and the strength to try again after failing.”