Duke Nurse Practitioner Students Honored for Commitment to Rural Health

The CVS Health Foundation’s Caring Hearts Scholarship is awarded to just 50 nurse practitioner (NP) students nationwide with a goal to increase access to primary care, especially in rural and low-income areas. Whereas the award was previously awarded only to Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) students, this year it expanded to consider Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) students.

Three School of Nursing students—Rachel King (FNP), Sheena (Petty) Starseed (FNP), and Shaneekqua Simms (PMHNP)—have earned the prestigious scholarship this year, which carries a monetary award of $10,000. All three are engaged in community-centered healthcare projects that have uniquely qualified them for this award.

Rachel King (FNP) is currently a board member and external link ambassador for Goshen’s Fountain of Nutrition and Health in Uganda, where large numbers of people live in poverty and suffer from malnutrition. King conducts home visits for children or elderly people identified as high risk, where she and colleagues address nutrition, socioeconomic status, food security, health education, and sanitation. This can look like anything from educational programs, to equipping people with skills like baking, sewing, and technology. “Keeping this bigger picture of health in mind, we are then able to address the needs of the families in a way that is hopefully sustainable over a lifetime,” explained King, who coordinates international relations and partners for the organization. “In the future, I hope to continue working with this organization to improve health equity and health for the vulnerable people in Uganda. As a nurse practitioner, I hope to continue to grow in my understanding of addressing health in a holistic way looking at all the social determinants of health.”

Sheena (Petty) Starseed (FNP) has worked in healthcare for over 14 years and been a Registered Nurse (RN) for nine. With experience in areas including corrections and critical care, Starseed is an active volunteer with clinics and organizations serving underrepresented populations domestically and internationally. Starseed plans to become a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) who focuses on naturopathy and medical ethnobotany, incorporating traditional plant medicine into modern practice. “This pathway has enabled me to become a culture bearer, a luminary, a preservationist, and a synergist [...] healing not only the body, but the mind and spirit," Starseed said.

Shaneekqua Simms (PMHNP) started her career as a Registered Nurse (RN) and has been in healthcare for more than 20 years working in acute care, community, and public health settings. “I’ve been very clear from an early age that my assignment was to care for others,” she said. Simms’ passion for public health was sparked in her role as a school health nurse, where, she explained, the significant impact of social determinants of health became apparent to her. “It didn’t take long to gather insight into the health disparities some people faced based on the zip code they lived in,” she said. After becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner, Simms worked in a local health department, where she noticed that mental health concerns were at the core of many issues she was treating. This understanding led her to specialize in mental health in Duke’s PMHNP program. Simms advocates for mental health among the underserved and rural populations through speaking engagements where she explores “uncomfortable, necessary, and overdue conversations that need to be had about all things mental health.”