Andrea Nixon awarded Maggie Burn Scholarship
Whangārei-based nurse Andrea Nixon has been named the 2025 recipient of the Maggie Burn Scholarship. Sponsored by Mobile Medical and awarded by the New Zealand Urological Nurses Society (NZUNS), the scholarship will support Andrea’s upcoming trip to Edinburgh, where she’ll help launch EFUNCore – a global Core Educational Framework for Urology Nursing.
The annual scholarship, which supports postgraduate study, advanced clinical training, or attendance at urological conferences or department site visits, honours the late Maggie Burn – a respected clinical nurse specialist known for her expertise, compassion, and tireless commitment to the profession.
Andrea’s career exemplifies those same values. Spanning more than five decades, her contribution to urological nursing in New Zealand is pioneering and profound. Based in Whangārei, the Clinical Nurse Manager works alongside her husband, Urologist Tony Nixon, at Cardinal Points Specialist Clinic. Together, they have delivered public and private urology outpatient services across Northland, earning a reputation for high-quality care in their community. Their roots in the region run deep both professionally and personally. They enjoy the family life that Northland offers and are proud grandparents to eight grandchildren – “Who love spending time fishing on the water at Teal Bay with Grammy and Poppa,” she shares.
Andrea’s work has gone far beyond clinical service. Working alongside Tony, she has coordinated numerous research trials focused on prostate cancer, overactive bladder, Peyronie’s disease, and intraprostatic light therapy. These trials contributed to the clinical use of VESIcare (a medication used to treat an overactive bladder), while others helped refine treatment strategies for metastatic prostate cancer. “The approach to trial selection was simple. It had to improve outcomes or be interesting enough to explore.”
