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.
Chenette Burks, a first year student at Belmont’s School of Pharmacy, was selected for a position in the Johns Hopkins Pharmacy internship program in Baltimore. Students from all over the country applied for this well-respected internship, and 15 students were chosen. Burks will be working as a pharmacy intern in the Central Pharmacy at Johns Hopkins from June until August of this year. This internship provides additional opportunities to shadow pharmacists and pharmacy residents working in various specialties, participate in Journal Clubs and develop projects that will be presented to the Department of Pharmacy.
On Saturday April 16th, members of the School of Pharmacy Class of 2012 hosted an Easter Egg Hunt and additional activities for children living at Renewal House in Nashville, TN. Renewal House is a community where women diagnosed with the disease of addiction undergo comprehensive treatment. Not only does the professional staff at Renewal House serve women battling this disease, but they foster healing, resiliency and educational enhancement for all members of the patient’s family.
Akwaaba is the phrase we will be greeted with as we step off of a plane into the muggy sweet air that is Accra, Ghana. For most of the people on this journey, this will be a new and exciting moment.
Pharmacy students Erica Evans, Laci Hendress, Jessica Paullet and Lindsey Smith dedicated a Saturday to mentor young women and promote pharmacy as a career field. These students modeled the professional, career-oriented women who work in pharmacy to 9th through 12th grade girls. “TWISTER seems to be a wonderful opportunity for these highly motivated individuals,” said Hendress.
Professor Mike Voight in the School of Physical Therapy is a contributor to a new textbook, Geriatric Physical Therapy, published by Elsevier Mosby. Voight co-wrote a chapter with Barbara Hoogenboom from Grand Valley State University entitled, “The Senior Athlete”.
Noted community and healthcare leader Jack O. Bovender, Jr. was honored last week in a ceremony at Belmont University for his impact on the school’s health sciences facilities and programs. The Jack O. Bovender, Jr. Boardroom, located on the fourth floor of Belmont’s Gordon E. Inman Center, was dedicated at an event attended by Mr. Bovender, his wife Barbara, son Richard and daughter-in-law Sara.
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.
Belmont University’s Social Work Club was recently named the Social Work Student Organization of the Year. This state-wide award is given to the Social Work Student Organization or Club that best demonstrates Social Work’s core values: Service, Social Justice, Dignity and Worth of the Person, Importance of Human Relationships, Integrity, and Competence (NASW Code of Ethics). Organizations exemplify these values through their actions within the school, profession, and/or community at large.
Belmont School of Pharmacy recently hosted 120 student pharmacists from Tennessee’s five schools of pharmacy (Belmont, East Tennessee State University, Lipscomb University, Union University, and the University of Tennessee) for the third annual Tennessee Society of Student Pharmacists meeting. TSSP is the student branch of the Tennessee Pharmacists Association. At the meeting, Shanna Harris, a third-year pharmacy student at Belmont, assumed the presidency of the TSSP.
Faculty members at Belmont University’s Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing are playing a vital role in the development of content that will be made available for use in an innovative new platform to deliver healthcare education through medical simulation.
Physical Therapy student Lacey Little shares about her experience in Guatemala on her personal blog. 
Dr. Teresa Plummer, Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy, was a presenter and co-presenter at several symposium sessions. In one session, she presented her doctoral dissertation, “Participatory Action Research to Examine the Current State of Practice in Wheelchair Assessment and Procurement”. She also co-presented “A Practice Guide for Wheelchair Assessments” with Mary Shea of Kessler Rehabilitation in West Orange, NJ, and “Powered Mobility and the Effects on Visual / Perceptual Deficits” with 2005 Belmont OTD graduate, Casey Emery of Banner Good Samaritan/Touchstone Rehab in Phoenix, AZ.
Twenty-one students from Belmont, representing the Schools of Occupational and Physical Therapy, served as volunteers for the event. The keynote speaker was Lee Woodruff, author and contributing editor for ABC’s Good Morning America, and wife of Bob Woodruff, a television journalist who was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Pictured here with Ms. Woodruff are OT students, Ashley Hutchinson and Jessica Rutledge.
Dr. John Halle, Professor and Chair of the School of Physical Therapy at Belmont University, was recently honored with the Outstanding Alumni Award from the U.S. Army Physical Therapy Alumni Association at Baylor University.
Today began with another wonderful breakfast (eggs, hotdogs, pancakes and toast). We headed to Antigua for a day of adventure. After an easy 1 hour drive, we arrived about 9:30AM. Our first stop was a coffee plantation in Antigua. We walked around the plantation grounds and several of us enjoyed coffee, cappuccinos, and a favorite, the mochachino. Most of the staff understood and spoke English, an indication to us that English speaking visitors are common in this area. The look of the city was quite different from what we have seen the last several days. It was a little tourist village tucked into the mountains with cobblestone streets, beautiful landscapes and quaint little shops. We noticed several tourists and what we thought might be study abroad students in the streets and markets.
6:34 am
After breakfast with Tony the Tiger the entire team headed for Tecpan, picking up the faculty from The University of Mariano Galvez on the way. The scenery was beautiful – including volcanoes, farm land, and indigenous people. We visited the JT foundation clinic in Tecpan.
We began our day with omelets filled with yummy peppers, served with delicious mangos, and Guatemalan Tang. The OT/PT teams went to the hospital while the nursing team went to McDonalds!!! (Actually, they got lost and made it to the hospital eventually.) While at the hospital, the OTs collaborated with 2 OT students from the university who are completing their thesis project on using music interventions in occupational therapy sessions to treat several children.
We’re here!!! We all met bright and early on Sunday morning at the airport. During our short layover in Atlanta, all 13 of us joined in on a dynamic new card game called “AWESOME,” then we departed to our destination of Guatemala. After de-boarding the plane, we were met by our amazing hosts Kevin, Claudia, and Steven. Once we were all packed up into the van, we pursued our first priority – LUNCH. Our hosts directed us to Tacontento, where we enjoyed the most fantastic guacamole and strawberry cream cheese filled chimichangas. We were both delighted and slightly intimidated by the large, colorful pinadas hanging overhead.
