Twisted Root Burger
Nursing Scholarship

$1 of every Burger of the Month benefits the Twisted Root nursing scholarship, part of the Eddie Bernice Johnson Advancing Nurse Excellence scholarship program at Baylor Scott & White – North Texas. Launched in 2009, the Eddie Bernice Johnson Advancing Nurse Excellence scholarship program allows Baylor Scott & White to sponsor employees who want to either pursue or advance a degree within nursing, but who cannot afford to do so as full-time students. Each scholar receives a full-time salary while working and attending school part-time. Employees apply for the scholarships and recipients are selected based on their commitment to completing their degrees, demonstrated work ethic and need.

The Twisted Root scholarship will go to a special recipient who has shown the kind of caring to be a nurse who heals souls as well as bodies – nurses like Vivian Sullivan.

When Vivian Sullivan, a unit secretary and patient care technician at Baylor T. Boone Pickens Cancer Hospital, applied for an Eddie Bernice Johnson Advancing Nurse Excellence scholarship program, she had to go through an interview process.

"What will you do if you don’t get this scholarship?" she was asked. "I’m going to keep going because it’s in my heart to become a nurse," she answered. "There will be challenges, but I’m going to get there."

Vivian, a mother of five, received the scholarship, and is well on her way to earning a bachelor’s of nursing degree from The University of Texas at Arlington.

The scholarship program helps ensure the 12,000 registered nurses at Baylor Scott & White Health are well-equipped for the vital roles they serve.

Research shows that increasing the number of nurses with bachelor’s degrees can improve patient outcomes and decrease the mortality rate. Additionally, when nurse leaders are positioned to influence system practice and policies, it leads to improvements like reduced hospital-acquired infections, improved patient outcomes and decreased mortality.

Eddie Bernice Johnson Advancing Nurse Excellence Scholarship Program

The scholarship program helps ease the burden of full-time Baylor employees who are pursing nursing degrees. With philanthropic support, selected scholars can work part-time while earning full-time benefits as they complete their studies. Since the program’s inception in 2009, 65 employees have been selected. Forty-four have completed their degrees. Eleven new scholars, including Vivian, were selected for 2017.

"Vivian has never lost focus of what she wants her life to be," said nurse manager Kelly Crayton, MSN, R.N., NE-BC. "Sometimes as an adult learner, that’s tough."

"My children and I would all sit around the table doing our homework - only I would be there until the wee hours of the night because I had so much work to do," Vivian said. "With this scholarship, it gave me so much time back."

"This scholarship let me know that someone else cared," said Vivian, who plans to continue working at Baylor after she completes her BSN. "They are going to have to pry my fingers away from Baylor because they have been a tremendous help to me - a blessing not only to me, but also to my family." outcomes and decreased mortality.

For more information about how you can support the Eddie Bernice Johnson Advancing Nurse Excellence scholarship program through Twisted Root Burgers, visit https://www.twistedrootburgerco.com/trb-nursing-scholarship.