School of Nursing Ranked Among Best Graduate Programs by U.S. News & World Report

Nursing stock image

Belmont University’s graduate nursing programs were lauded today when U.S. News and World Report released its 2018 rankings of Best Graduate Schools, a tool to help prospective graduate students better understand the graduate school landscape and identify potential programs. Both the Master’s in Nursing (No. 157) and the University’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (No. 127) were included in this year’s rankings which surveyed 532 accredited nursing schools.

Belmont College of Health Sciences and Nursing Dean Dr. Cathy Taylor said, “We’re pleased with this recognition for our growing graduate and doctoral nursing programs and the extraordinary strengths our faculty bring to teaching and practice every day.”

Both the master’s and DNP rankings are based on a weighted average of 14 indicators. Seven ranking indicators are used in both the master’s and DNP ranking models. The seven common factors are the four research activity indicators, faculty credentials, the percentage of faculty members with important achievements and faculty participation in nursing practice. The other seven indicators in each ranking use measures that are specific to each degree type. Both rankings take into account the ratings of academic experts.

Belmont graduate family nurse practitioners (FNPs) are prepared to practice in a variety of settings. Graduates are particularly skilled in measurement of patient and population outcomes, education of diverse populations, leadership in health policy development and implementation, translation of evidence into clinical practice and advocacy for quality care within complex health care delivery systems. This is directly reflected in Belmont’s consistent 100 percent national certification examination pass rate and robust, post-graduation job placements.

Belmont’s other health science-focused programs were lauded among U.S. News 2017 rankings—the website doesn’t rank those programs on an annual basis. For 2017, Belmont’s pharmacy (No. 98), occupational therapy (No. 88) and physical therapy (No. 79) programs were all included in the national rankings of Best Graduate Schools.

Social Work Club Hosts Nashville Unity Project

Students map their identifiers at the Unity Project event on April 6

Beginning on April 6 and lasting through April 9, Belmont University’s Social Work Club organized and implemented an interactive art project in Nashville as part of the international Unity Project movement. The event was aimed at reducing division in the community by visually showing how all lives are interconnected and related.

Panel discussion at the Unity Project event on April 6The event was held at the Bellevue Branch of the Nashville Public Library and began with an opening ceremony that featured a panel discussion led by local community members on matters of diversity and inclusion. Panelists included Belmont’s Chief of Staff and Vice President Dr. Susan West, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Vanderbilt Dr. George Hill, Education and Street Chaplaincy Coordinator for Open Table Nashville Lindsey Krinks, Community Relations Manager at Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Leah Hashinger, Belmont student Jasmine Niazi and a representative from Conexión Américas.

After the opening ceremony, the interactive art project was open for public participation during normal library hours and was constantly supervised by Belmont students until the closing ceremony, held on April 9. The art project consisted of 32 poles placed in a circle, with each pole representing a unique identifier (culture, ethnicity, race, religion, etc.). Participants were invited to wrap colorful yarn around the poles they identified with, connecting themselves with the growing piece. Once complete, the yarn formed a cohesive web of interconnectedness to show that community members have more similarities than they do differences. The closing ceremony featured a poetry reading, music by a local artist and a group discussion on diversity, which was led by Associate Professor of Social Work Julie Hunt.

Belmont student Kate Patterson initially came up with the idea to bring the Unity Project to Nashville after being inspired by her participation in a Unity Project in Washington D.C. last June. Patterson was the main student involved in organizing the event and was present throughout the whole event.

“The Social Work club and I have been working out the details for the event for several months. It was rewarding to see the event take place after so mucStudents map their identifiers at the Unity Project event on April 6h planning,” Patterson said. “The panel discussion at the opening event was powerful to hear how organizations across Nashville value working together with various populations for a common goal of promoting the rights of humans. Throughout the weekend, I was blessed to meet many amazing individuals who reflected on their identities and had dreams of carrying the event to other locations around Nashville and to other cities. It was refreshing to meet so many people who worked together to create unity in the collaborative art piece as well as in their lives.”

The Unity Project was created in June of 2016 as a response to the divisiveness and negative rhetoric in American politics. Since its conception, the Unity Project has been completed in more than 20 countries.