

Maloney Hall 362A
Telephone: 617-552-8718
Email: brittney.vandewater@bc.edu
Tuberculosis, TB/HIV, child health, sub-Saharan Africa, implementation science, human resources for health
Brittney van de Water, Ph.D., RN, CPNP, is an assistant professor at the Connell School of Nursing. Dr. van de Water is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner and global health delivery researcher. Most recently she was faculty at Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine after completing a post-doctoral fellowship in the same department. She received her Ph.D. and doctoral certificate in global health from Duke University and a BS and MS in nursing from Boston College. Her current research focuses on improving tuberculosis program quality and implementation in low resource settings. The goals of her program of research are to use implementation science frameworks to deliver high quality healthcare to high-risk populations (i.e. children, people living with HIV, and household contacts of patients with TB).
Dr. van de Water has spent half of the past five years living and working in rural Eastern Cape, South Africa where the majority of her research is based. She is also the associate director for pediatric nursing at Seed Global Health, where she supports nurse educators and partnerships with universities in Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, and Sierra Leone. She continues to practice as a PNP at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, in Charlestown, MA.
Her research has been supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Future of Nursing Scholars program (2014-2020), the Nurses Education Fund (2015), Sigma Theta Tau International Honors Society of Nursing (2016, 2020), and the National Institute of Nursing Research where she currently holds a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (2020-2023).
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Charlestown, MA
van de Water, B, Fulcher, I, Meyer, TN, Cilliers, S, Wilson, M, Young, C, Gaunt, B, le Roux, K. (2022). Assessing the association of HIV infection and antiretroviral therapy with the occurrence of an unfavorable TB treatment outcome in a rural district hospital in Eastern Cape, South Africa. PLOS ONE.
Renning K, van de Water BJ, Brandstetter S, Kasitomu C, Gowero N, Simbota M, Majamanda M. (2022) Nursing education and training needs assessment for improving pediatric critical care in Malawi: A situational analysis. BMC Nursing. Doi: 10.1186/s12912-021-00772-3 PubMed PMCID: PMC8724585
van de Water B, Wilson M, le Roux KW, Gaunt B. (2021). TB prevention cascade at a district hospital in rural Eastern Cape, South Africa. Public Health Action. Doi: 10.55888/pha.20.0055. PMCID: PMC8202619.
van de Water B, Brooks M, Huang CC, Trevisi L, Lecca L, Contreras C, Galea J, Calderon R, Yataco R, Murray M, Becerra M. (2021) Tuberculosis clinical presentation and treatment outcomes in pregnancy: a prospective cohort study. BMC Infectious Diseases. Doi: 10.1186/s12879-020-05416-6. PubMed PMID: 32948149.
van de Water BJ, Vance AJ, Ramangoaela L, Botha M, Becerra M. (2020) Prevention care cascade in people exposed to drug-resistant TB. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases. Doi: 10.5588/ijtld.20.0296. PubMed PMID: 33317677.
Chaing SS, Brooks MB, Jenkins HE, Rubenstein D, Seddon JA, van de Water BJ, Lindeborg MM, Becerra MC, Yuen CM. (2021) Concordance of drug-resistance profiles between persons with drug-resistant tuberculosis and their household contacts: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Infectious Diseases. Doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa613. PMCID: PMC8427728.
Smith E, van de Water BJ, Viscossi J, Martin A, Seider J, Barton S, Ekeji N, Bility M, Fitzgibbon C, Haglund M, Bettger JP. (2018) Availability of post-hospital services supporting community reintegration for children with identified surgical need in Uganda. BMC Health Services Research. Doi: 10.1186/s12913-018-3510-2 PMCID: PMC6149201.
van de Water BJ, Bettger J, Silva S, Humphreys J, Cunningham C, Farley J. (2017). Time to drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment in a prospective South African cohort. Global Pediatric Health. doi: 10.1177/2333794x17744140. PMCID: PMC5714082.
2021-2022 Global Nurse Leadership Institute scholar, International Council of Nursing
2016 - Current, Associate Director, Pediatric Nursing, Seed Global Health
K23 Mentored Patient Oriented Research Career Development Award, van de Water (PI) (Mentor: Mercedes Becerra) NIH/NINR. Household contact tuberculosis preventive therapy program in rural Eastern Cape, South Africa
Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society Of Nursing Global Health Research Grant van de Water (PI)