Features Category

A climate of caring

May 22, 2019

Carol Ziegler, DNP’12, MSN’06, spent her younger years discussing climate change with her environmentalist father, but it wasn’t until a trip to Kenya in 2009 that she saw the direct impact it could have on every aspect of a society. “They’re agrarian, so their lives are dependent on weather,” Ziegler said of the population in…

The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation: Three decades of impact

May 22, 2019

On clinic day every week, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing student Brooke Hazen gets to the hospital early. Her 12-hour day starts at 6:30 a.m. with the charge nurse’s report on patients and case review with an instructor before hands-on patient care begins. “We’re taking vital signs, helping patients shower and walk, administering shots and…

Whatever it took

May 8, 2019

The School of Nursing building owes its existence to the 2008 recession. Then-Dean Colleen Conway-Welch and her team knew that the school’s growth would require expanded space for teaching, faculty offices and clinical training. She knew just where to get it: add two floors on top of Patricia Champion Frist Hall, which had been designed…

A DNP tailored for executive leaders

October 9, 2018

When Vanderbilt launched its Doctor of Nursing Practice program a decade ago, all DNP students followed an advanced practice track that they tailored to their specific clinical interests. Over the years, VUSN officials heard from potential applicants and students interested in a different curriculum, one focused on specifically strengthening leadership skills. VUSN had been attracting…

The evolution of the Emergency Nurse Practitioner

October 9, 2018

For years, Jennifer Wilbeck, DNP, PMC’06, MSN’99, FAANP, pieced together nursing knowledge much like working a jigsaw puzzle. Each course’s curriculum interlocked with teachings from another to form a complete picture of what she wanted to learn. Ultimately, Wilbeck gained instruction from a variety of nursing specialties to learn what she felt she needed to…

Currently Funded Grants and Contracts

October 9, 2018

Research Grants Susie Adams Child Protective Services Assessment Track Training Academy VUMC — State of Tennessee 7/1/2018–6/30/2023 $147,727 Michelle Collins Use of Nitrous Oxide During Labor and Birth & Perinatal Outcomes, Development of a U.S. Repository of Nitrous Use Porter Instrument Division — Parker Hannifin Corporation 1/2014–10/2018 $44,100 Terrah Foster Akard Impact of a Palliative…

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