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Vanderbilt students, staff and faculty volunteer at mass COVID-19 vaccination event

March 25, 2021

More than 60 Vanderbilt students, staff and faculty members helped Nashville’s Metro Public Health Department vaccinate 10,107 community members in a marathon 14-hour event on Sat., March 20. Recipients received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the drive-through event outdoors at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium. Assistant Professor Carrie Plummer organized VUSN’s participation, which drew volunteers…

Vanderbilt School of Nursing hosts global climate education initiative

March 25, 2021

Vanderbilt University School of Nursing is joining fellow Tennessee school University of the South and more than 100 universities in 50 countries around the world to focus on a critical question: What can be done to help solve climate change while supporting struggling communities that have faced joblessness, sickness and loss? On Thursday, April 8,…

Jeffries named dean of School of Nursing

March 24, 2021

Pamela R. Jeffries, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH, an internationally recognized leader and innovator in nursing and health care education, will become dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, effective July 1, pending Board of Trust approval. Jeffries, professor and dean of the George Washington University School of Nursing in Washington, D.C., succeeds Linda Norman, who plans to step down from her leadership role on June 30. 

Akard appointed to lead PhD in Nursing Science program

March 20, 2021

Associate Professor Terrah Foster Akard, PhD’08, MSN’01, FAAN, has been named director of the PhD in Nursing Science program at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Akard, a Vanderbilt University Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow and noted scholar in pediatric palliative care, had been co-director with Professor Sheila Ridner, PhD’03, MSN’00, FAAN, the Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of Nursing,…

Arnow named director of Nursing and Health Care Leadership specialty

March 17, 2021

Associate Professor Debbie Arnow, DNP’11, MSN’96, has been selected as the new academic director for the Nursing and Health Care Leadership specialty in the master of science in nursing program at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. “Debbie Arnow is an accomplished senior nurse executive with experience in delivering successful clinical outcomes, financial performance and personnel…

Tears of joy, tears of sorrow — College sweethearts, a COVID unit wedding, and a love story that ended too soon

March 16, 2021

The first week of October, 2020, Vanderbilt School of Nursing alumna Sherri Randolph, MSN’97, planned to marry her college sweetheart, Stacey Bruff. As things turned out, Sherri and Stacey got married a few days earlier, Sept. 21, in the only wedding ever to take place in the COVID unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Tragically and unexpectedly, Stacey died two days after the wedding. Sherri was devastated, and she still has a hard time talking about Stacey without tears welling up. There is a lot of sadness about how things turned out. She knows that all over the world there are millions of lives that have been changed forever by the COVID-19 pandemic, and hers is one of them. So, this is a story rooted in the devastation of the pandemic. But don’t lose sight of this: it is still a love story.

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