Assistant Professor Helen Nation, MSN’07 recently moved to full-time at VUSN! She is part of the NNP specialty and practices at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. She is board certified in Neonatal/ Pediatric Transport, active in NANN, NANNP and FANNP and a guest lecturer in medical literature at MTSU.
Nation’s NICU career eventually put her in the position to care for a four-week-old premature infant, on full respiratory support, whose twin had died. This experience inspired her to study the benefits of skin-to-skin contact (SSC) for infants born before 29 weeks as part of her doctoral research, with the goal of increasing its prevalence, even in cases of full respiratory support.
“The mother had yet to hold her baby,” Nation said. “As both a mother and NNP, I felt it was completely unacceptable that she had never been able to fulfill the simplest maternal need with her child.”
Nation works to help infants begin SSC earlier, which improves breastfeeding rates and lowers associated risks.
At VUSN, she will help secure clinical placements and teach: 6602, 6605, 6615, 6620, 6624 and 6695.
“I am excited about the possibilities of shaping the future NNP’s,” she said, adding that she has learned a lot from teaching. “School gives you the tools and ability to logically think through problems for challenges ahead.”
Outside of work, Nation enjoys traveling and spending time with her husband and three daughters.