Dr. Martha Buckner, associate professor and chair of the undergraduate nursing department at Belmont University, has been accepted as a fellow in the Leadership for Academic Nursing program with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. About 50 leadership fellows are selected each year through a competitive application process from nurse educators in over 640 member schools nationwide.
The fellowship was designed to prepare a more diverse and younger pool of leaders for nursing programs in the United States. The year long program provides participants with a focused assessment experience, a range of content and case studies related to successful leadership, and the opportunity to establish networks with mentors and peers. It focuses on key leadership competencies needed in complex nursing education and healthcare environments.
Buckner practiced as a staff nurse after receiving her BSN from Western Kentucky University. She earned her MSN from Vanderbilt University in adult health and practiced as a clinical nurse specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on a nutrition support team before becoming a nurse educator. Buckner began teaching at Belmont in 1992 as a part-time clinical instructor. In 2006, she completed a Ph.D. in educational leadership with a focus on higher education. Dr. Buckner was selected to chair the undergraduate nursing department at Belmont in 2009.

Belmont University’s Nursing Program has been presented with another distinguished research opportunity. This one is comprised of the National League for Nursing (NLN) and the American Heart Association as they team up to “determine how pre-licensure RN nursing students best retain CPR knowledge and skills.” The study will include students from 10 different schools, among them are notably: Georgia State University, Kent State University, University of Evansville, Washington State University and Belmont University.
The experiment tested the effects “of monthly 6 minute practice sessions (2 minutes each of compressions, ventilations with bag, valve, mask, and single rescuer CPR) using a voice activated manikin (VAM) for up to 12months… 606 students from 10 regionally diverse schools of nursing from around the US were randomized into experimental or control groups. The control group did no further CPR practice. The experimental group practiced CPR skills on a Laerdal Resusci-AnneVAM® manikin for 6 minutes monthly, for up to 12 months. Twenty percent of participants were post-tested and dropped from the study at the 3, 6, and 9 month time points. Forty percent of the participants continued monthly CPR practice until month 12 of the study.” In short, the study was designed to prove that repeated exposure to CPR methods keeps nursing students refreshed and ready to deliver CPR effectively. The study proved exactly that. The conclusion of the study found that “CPR skills deteriorated significantly at the 9 month time point in this study, suggesting that the 2 year time frame for CPR renewal is too long, without practice. Brief monthly practice sessions with a VAM manikin improve or maintain CPR skills.”
What does this mean for Belmont? Beth Hallmark, Belmont’s NLN Ambassador, states that Belmont will be “adopting the VAM for our CPR training and that we will be offering to area health professionals.” In addition Martha Buckner, PhD, RN Director, Undergraduate Studies in Nursing says that Belmont’s “partnership with the National League for Nursing, Laerdal, and the American Heart Association in this national, multi-center trial will advance life-saving knowledge and skills related to CPR. Belmont’s School of Nursing is deeply committed to improving the quality and safety of patient care and this interdisciplinary project allows us to expand those efforts to a national level. We are delighted to be part of this effort.”