Recently, Belmont’s School of Nursing joined with the Metro Public Health Department (MPHD) to celebrate 100 years of public health nursing in Davidson County. Keynote speakers were Dr. Alisa Haushalter from MPHD and Assistant Professor Loretta Bond from Belmont. Dr. Haushalter spoke about the history of community health nursing in Davidson County and Professor Bond spoke about the history of the term “health disparities” which is the focus of her doctoral research.
Belmont’s Community Health Nursing students presented posters of their projects involving historical inquiry into a wide range of public health topics from rabies to infant mortality to seat belts. The projects were supervised by Dr. Ruby Dunlap and Ms. Emily Morse. The link for more information about the centennial for public health nursing in Davidson County is: http://www.mphdnursingcentennial.com.

For the seventh consecutive year, the graduating class from Belmont University’s master’s program for Family Nurse Practitioners (FNP) have achieved a 100 percent first time pass rate on the advanced practice nursing examination for family nurse practitioners, administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Fifteen MSN graduates from Belmont completed the examination during the past year.
ANCC, the world’s largest and most prestigious nurse credentialing organization, recently announced that the overall pass rate for the FNP exam was just over 83% in 2010. More than a quarter million nurses have been certified by ANCC since 1990 and over 80,000 advanced practice nurses are currently certified by ANCC. ANCC certification is accepted by governing boards throughout the United States, as well as insurers and the military. The program validates nurses’ skills, knowledge and abilities, and empowers nurses within their professional sphere while contributing to better patient outcomes.

Dr. Jamie Adam, a faculty member in the School of Nursing, is presenting her doctoral research at two conferences this month. She will present Depressive Symptoms, Self-Efficacy and Adherence in Patients with Type 2 DM at the Western Institute of Nursing Research and again at the 18th Annual National Evidence-Based Practice Conference.

Instructor Tamara Baird, right, works with students Anna Mary Schaedle, Jessica Blankenship and Miriam Blizzard on Thursday in a post-partum hemorrhaging scenario during a class in Belmont University’s nursing program. / DIPTI VAIDYA / THE TENNESSEAN

Click the link below to see the full story in the March 5th Tennessean:
TN is short on nurses, and those to teach them
Written by Tom Wilemon

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The Graduate Nursing Research Applications class from Fall, 2010 semester has submitted a manuscript to the Journal of Pediatric Nursing entitled Empower U: Effectiveness of an Adolescent Outreach and Prevention Program with Sixth Grade Boys and Girls: A Pilot Study. This group is led by Dr. Sharon Dowdy.

The School of Nursing at Belmont University recently honored recipients of the New Careers in Nursing (NCIN) Scholarship with a dinner to promote leadership and professionalism. The scholarships are funded by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation to support underrepresented students in Belmont’s accelerated second degree nursing program. The event was organized by Dr. Anita Chesney and Dr. Carrie Harvey, who coordinate the scholarship program at Belmont. To date, the School of Nursing has received $200,000 in scholarship funds.
The event was attended by the NCIN grantees, as well as several community nurse leaders from the Nashville area. The distinguished guests shared their experiences and offered advice and opportunities to the scholarship recipients. Community nursing leaders from Tennessee Nurses Association (District 3), Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society, and Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority challenged the students to succeed and become involved in professional nursing organizations. Featured speakers included Richard Phidd, RN, BSN, and Laura Kelley, RN, MSN (pictured above), who serve as nurse managers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

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Belmont nursing students, along with associate professor Dr. Beth Youngblood, were recently awarded the 6th Annual Project Blossom Award by the Metro Department of Health. They received the award for serving as event planners and prenatal care teachers in the Teen Conference — a program for pregnant teens in the Davidson County school system — and for their work with the Incredible Baby Shower project. The Belmont group received the award at Nursing Excellence Night on Nov. 15 following the induction on new Sigma Theta Tau members.
Project Blossom is an initiative from the Governor’s office to decrease the state’s infant mortality rate. The award is given each year to an individual or group that plays a significant role in saving babies and eliminating prenatal disparities within Nashville and the Davidson County area.
In addition to their work with the Teen Conference and the Incredible Baby Shower, Belmont nursing students have also provided teaching to patients with babies at Centennial Medical Center, Stonecrest Medical Center, and the Hope Clinic of Nashville.

The disaster simulation drill featured as part of last month’s Tennessee Simulation Conference cosponsored by the Belmont University School of Nursing was featured recently in a Nashville Medical News article.
The article can be accessed directly at the Nashville Medical News website, but is also included below.

Collaborations and Conferences Push the Emerging Model
By: SHARON H. FITZGERALD
The scene would have been horrifying, if not for the posted signs that read “Disaster Drill in Progress.” Victims covered in faux blood were scattered on Belmont University sidewalks, stairs and lawns last month as nursing faculty from academic and hospital settings across Tennessee learned how such simulations better help their students learn.
The event was the third-annual Tennessee Simulation Conference, called “Practice, Practice, Practice! Patient Safety and Provider Performance,” held at Belmont’s College of Health Sciences & Nursing. Belmont boasts the Health Care Simulation Center, which has been recognized as a Laerdal Center of Education Excellence. That’s simulation education’s gold seal of approval. The two-day conference on Nov. 4-5 was preceded on Nov. 3 by a pre-conference at Vanderbilt University where participants new to simulation education learned the basics of setting up simulation programs at their institutions.
Just what is simulation education anyway? According to Beth Fentress Hallmark, PhD, RN, who is Belmont’s director of simulation, “A simulated clinical experience is anything that is not real. I hate to say that, but there are so many different components to it, from the actual pre-work that students have to do, to the simulation where they’re working in the lab or with a standardized patient. Because simulation is so new, we are really trying to define some of those terms.”
A “standardized patient” is an individual trained to play the role of someone who is ill or injured and that can certainly be a valuable learning tool. Yet, simulation may also be as simple as a nurse learning to administer an injection by substituting an orange for an arm. “It’s not just electronic simulators that we’re talking about,” Hallmark said, adding, “The most important portion of simulation is really the debriefing and the reflective thinking, where you sit around the table and you ‘unpack’ everything you’ve done.”
The seeds for the Tennessee Simulation Conference were sowed in 2006, when nursing education advocates across the state launched a full-fledged effort to apply for grant funding, Hallmark explained. They were successful, and the first conference at Belmont, entitled “Empowering Nurse Educators,” was held in 2008. Funding has come from a variety of sources, including the Community Foundation of Tennessee, the Tennessee Center for Nursing, Belmont, Vanderbilt and Austin Peay State University. Another financial source has been a national initiative by the Robert Wood Johnson and the Northwest Health Foundation. Called Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future, the national strategy was designed to establish a stable, adequate nursing workforce.
Today, the Tennessee Nursing Clinical Simulation Center is a website collaboration designed to help Tennessee nurse educators access the latest simulation resources. The site includes links to other websites, conferences, newsletters, presentations, journals and books, offering an in-depth look at what is practiced in the world of simulation today.
According to the website, “In today’s world of healthcare, we have learned simulation provides the learner a place safe from patient harm, helps the learner to increase confidence, and can provide the educator a means to make things happen, unlike clinical experiences. Educators are also learning that simulation education provides a format to teach teamwork.”
In fact, Hallmark’s presentation at last month’s conference focused on the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation in simulation education. “Not only is this going to be nursing, but we’re expanding this to include all disciplines. I’m working with physicians, EMTs, respiratory therapy, allied health, from the very top to the very bottom of the healthcare realm,” she said. She pointed to studies that now stress educating nurses “interprofessionally and not in those typical silos because the medical errors continue to occur.”
Still another Tennessee initiative is the new Tennessee Simulation Alliance, which held its inaugural meeting on Oct. 11 and met again in conjunction with the recent conference. Hallmark is the alliance’s program director, and she said the collaboration is multidisciplinary and involves healthcare professionals working together to ensure improved patient safety and the use of quality simulation scenarios. The alliance plans to partner with academia, industry, government and healthcare providers.
“In surgery, there’s still an increase in wrong-side surgeries or wrong-site surgeries. Isn’t that awful? We really feel like simulation is one way we can help with safety and communication and make sure that we are providing education for students before they get to the acute-care arena,” she said.
Hallmark said ongoing projects in Tennessee to further simulation include:
* Continued faculty education,
* An online “clinical placing system” database to help nursing schools find available simulation units they might use in hospitals, long-term care facilities and other institutions.
* Development of current nurses on a unit to act as clinical instructors.

The Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing at Belmont University will host two major statewide healthcare events this week.
On Thursday, November 4, 2010, invited nurse leaders and other healthcare professionals from across the state will meet in the Curb Events Center at Belmont for the Tennessee Primary Care Nursing Summit. The Summit will examine how to maximize the contributions of nurses and develop recommendations to meet the challenges and opportunities of healthcare reform in the delivery of primary care services to improve the health of Tennesseans.
The event is scheduled in coordination with the release of the Institute of Medicine’s report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Dr. Susan Hassmiller from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is spearheading efforts for this initiative and will deliver a keynote address at the Summit. Other speakers include Dr. Paul Erwin from the University of Tennessee Center for Public Health and Policy, who will outline Tennessee challenges, and Dr. Peter Buerhaus from Vanderbilt University, who will look at cost and utilization data related to advanced practice nurses.
The Summit is sponsored by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, in conjunction with the University of Tennessee College of Nursing at Knoxville and the Health Sciences Center, the College of Medicine at the UT Health Sciences Center, and the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing at Belmont University. The Baker Center is a nonpartisan institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville devoted to education and scholarship concerning public policy and civic engagement.
Nurses across the state will have opportunity to watch a live or archived webcast of the Summit’s keynote addresses and can post comments on a blog hosted by the Baker Center. Input from participants at the summit and on the blog will be used by Baker Center Fellows to develop final summit recommendations and strategies. Once the Baker Center report is released, nurses can use the report to advocate for recommended changes with state policymakers and other stakeholders. Copies of the report will be available on the Baker Center website after the first of the year.
In addition to the Nursing Summit, Belmont will also host the third annual Tennessee Nursing Simulation Conference beginning on Thursday, November 4, 2010. Last year, nearly 150 educators and hospital administrators from Tennessee and various other states attended the conference, which is presented by Belmont’s School of Nursing and The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee through a grant from the Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future – a collaborative initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Health Foundation.
The conference is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of simulation technology and resources and to build communication networks for educators in Tennessee. Conference faculty include nationally renowned experts on simulation technology in healthcare education and training.
This year’s conference will feature a mass casualty disaster simulation presented by the Arkansas State University Regional Training Center for Disaster Preparedness Education. The Center is part of the University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions and offers certification courses in basic and advanced disaster life support. These courses provide training in areas such as detecting disasters, incident command, securing the scene and making it safe for responders to go in, assessing additional hazards, establishing triage and treatment, taking on and off hazardous materials suits, assessing and treating persons injured in disaster, and administering medications stored in the strategic national stockpile.

From the Paris Post-Intellegencer. . . .
Henry County High School senior Hannah Robison is the new Miss Tennessee Teen All-American. She won the title Oct. 10 in Lebanon.
Hannah participated in evening gown, interview and swimwear before she was selected the state winner. She now advances to the national Miss Teen All-American Pageant in Philadelphia in 2011. The national title was won in the past by actress Halle Berry, spokesmodel Debbie James and former Miss USA Lynette Cole of Tennessee.
Hannah is a 2010 Girls’ State representative and is her senior class secretary. She hopes to study nursing at Belmont University beginning in the fall of 2011. She was also a 2010 participant in the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine at Harvard University.
Hannah pulled off a rare double earlier this year. She was the Hostess Princess for the World’s Biggest Fish Fry and also was named queen during the Fairest of the Fair pageant at the Henry County Fair, thus winning the top two beauty pageant titles in the county during the same year.
Hannah is the daughter of Pam and Rusty Robison.

Recently, nursing student Ashley Scoby administered flu shots to Edgehill residents in the I.W. Gernert Homes along with School of Nursing faculty Dr. Anita Chesney and Dr. Ruby Dunlap. The shots were donated by Student Health Services.
“The three of us really enjoyed interacting with the residents of the IWG high rise,” Dunlap said. “This is the kind of nursing I enjoy most— offering health services right where people live.”
In addition to the flu clinic, 87 nursing students have made home visits to refugee family clients of Catholic Charities and World Relief Refugee Resettlement. The students provided health assessments, nutrition and medication instruction and instruction on the U.S. healthcare system. The families hailed from various countries, including Nepal, Burma, Iraq and Ethiopia.

The Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing welcomed four new full-time faculty members into the School of Nursing this fall. These new members include the following individuals:
Jamie Adam comes to us from College of the Ozarks in Missouri as a full time faculty member in adult health and will be joining us in August. She has a wide range of teaching experience including 2 years at MTSU. She has an MSN from MTSU as a family nurse practitioner and a DNP in Educational Leadership from Case Western Reserve University. Jamie has experience with high-fidelity simulation and has an interest in transcultural nursing. She is also fluent in Spanish.
Loretta Bond is joining us on a full time basis beginning in August to work in adult health areas. Loretta comes to us with many years of teaching experience, most recently at Marquette University and Western Kentucky University. She has been teaching in our Adult Health I labs for the past two semesters. Loretta has an MSN form Marquette University with a support area of curriculum and instruction. She is near the completion of her doctoral work at RUSH University with a research area in health disparities-cultural mistrust.
Sandy Rosedale is inaugurating a new role at Belmont as clinical placement coordinator. She will begin in July and will be on a 12-month contract going forward. Her role will include being our primary contact to all our clinical agencies. Sandy has an MSN from University of California, San Francisco as a Geriatric Clinical Nurse Specialist. We have known Sandy well over this past academic year as she has served in a full time adjunct faculty role teaching in community health and leadership and management. She will continue to teach approximately 6 hours per semester.
Erica Sevier is a new full time faculty member with primary responsibility in women’s health. She will be teaching primarily in NUR 4210 but will continue to help with some adult health clinical from time to time. Erica has an MSN from Vanderbilt University in Women’s Health. Of course we already know Erica from her full time adjunct role with us over the past year. Erica is teaching in the OB course this summer and will begin her full time responsibilities in August while continuing her doctoral work at Trevecca.