Barbara Davies was a Full Professor in the School of Nursing, University of Ottawa. She was a driving force behind the first ever research center in nursing at the University of Ottawa, The Nursing Best Practice Research Centre, a joint collaboration with the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario 2007-2016. She was also the Vice Dean Research for the Faculty of Health Sciences (2014-2016).
She received a Career Scientist Award from the Ministry of Health of Ontario (2000-2005) entitled Research Transfer for Maternal-Infant Health. She also received a Premier's Research Excellence Award from the Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation, of Ontario, Canada (2004-2009). In 2009, along with leaders from the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, she received the Practice/Academe Innovative Collaboration Award from Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. The Hunan Ministry of Education acknowledged her teaching in China with a Foreign Overseas Expert Award. In Ontario, Canada, she was honoured with the Scholarship into Practice Award from the Council of Ontario University Programs in Nursing in 2017.
She is an ongoing Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2015- ) and a Handling Editor for the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research (2016- ).