Sarah Dickson

Sarah Dickson, APRN-FPA, CARN-AP, is a Nurse Practitioner at Lawndale Christian Health Center, an FQHC on the south and southwest side of Chicago, in a role that combines clinic-based primary care, mobile health, and addiction medicine.  Formerly, she served as an attending on the inpatient addiction medicine consult service at the University of Chicago Hospital, a role that included precepting fellows, residents, and medical students during their elective rotations.  She also contributed to research publications, including a case series on the use of low-dose IV buprenorphine inductions for patients with opioid use disorder and concurrent pain.  She obtained her undergraduate nursing degree at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire in 1999, and her graduate degree at Rush University in 2005 and currently holds board certifications through ANCC as an Adult Nurse Practitioner, and ANCB as a Certified Addictions Nurse Practitioner.  Throughout her nearly 20-year career as an APN in Chicago, she has provided healthcare in various diverse primary care settings such as healthcare for the homeless, FQHCs, home health, student health, and academic medical centers.  She is most passionate about providing healthcare to populations affected by homelessness, poverty, substance use disorders, and mental illness.  As a result, she has developed a practice style which incorporates trauma-informed care, human rights, anti-stigma, and harm reduction.  Her main clinical interest is how applying the biopsychosocial model within integrated addiction medicine leads to transformation of the patient-provider relationship as well as movement along the patients' identified continuum of health.