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Features
Q+A: An Interview with Betsy Weiner and Tom Christenbery
Sigma Theta Tau International’s Iota Chapter was founded in 1953 at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. In honor of the group’s 60th Anniversary, Vanderbilt Nurse sat down with Senior Associate Dean of Informatics Betsy Weiner and Tom Christenbery, professor and IOTA Chapter president, to discuss the history and future of the organization. What is Sigma…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2013 | Tags: cover, slideshow
Lights. Camera. Action.
Nutrition instructor Jamie Pope lectures to her students on the power of superfoods, with a rainbow-colored collection of nutrient-rich fare on the table before her and a green screen draped behind her. Her class is 50,000 students strong and growing. Except for a throng of studio lights, camera equipment, computers and a teleprompter, not a…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2013 | Tags: cover, slideshow
The Colleen Conway-Welch Legacy
In 1985, after Colleen Conway married Ted Welch, she signed an informal written agreement between the two of them that she would resign as dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing after five years. Eight years later Welch lovingly tore up the agreement and handed her the pieces. Twenty-nine years later Conway-Welch is stepping…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2013 | Tags: cover, slideshow
2011 Cumulative Report
At Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, we believe our past accomplishments catapult us to future successes. The following pages found here highlight the School’s continued growth and meaningful contributions to the world of nursing and nursing education. [2011 Cumulative Report - PDF]
Posted in Fall 2012, Features, Issue, News |
Q+A: An Interview with Mary Ann Jessee
VUSN’s Pre-Specialty Level of the MSN program is thriving with more than 160 incoming students each year, representing a variety of non-nursing educational backgrounds. After serving as interim director and leading the faculty through a major curriculum revision, Mary Ann Jessee, MSN, RN, became Pre-Specialty director in May 2012. Recently, she sat down with…
Posted in Fall 2012, Features, Issue | Tags: cover, slideshow
How Meth Impacts Brain Chemistry
Methamphetamine (Meth) is a neurotoxin that primarily effects dopamine pathways in the brain. Meth mimics dopamine which is called the “pleasure” neurotransmitter in the brain. When something pleasurable happens, certain axons in the brain release dopamine which attach to receptors on dendrites of neighboring axons passing along the pleasure message in the brain. The process…
Posted in Fall 2012, Features, Issue |
Crystal Clear
The putrid smell of her own flesh burning was not enough to make Jade Wilhite seek medical attention. She was following the methamphetamine user code: do not get caught. The day she tilted her head back to administer what she thought was a soothing liquid for her tired, irritated eyes, was the day her loyalty…
Posted in Fall 2012, Features, Issue | Tags: cover, slideshow
Not Just Aspirin and Band-Aids Anymore
Tyler Ralph slumps into the yellow chair looking as limp as the untied shoelaces on his back-to-school sneakers. But the fourth grader knows to get down to business – swabbing his fingertip, pricking it with the lancet, putting the drop of blood on the test strip, waiting for the blood sugar reading that explains why…
Posted in Fall 2012, Features, Issue | Tags: cover, slideshow
The Art of Aging
Frances Raines knows the secret to successful aging. “Keep busy,” says the 97-year-old resident at Bethany Health & Rehabilitation nursing home, flashing a knowing smile that momentarily erases the wrinkles on her face. With a bright red crochet hook and yards of sky blue and royal purple yarn, Raines keeps busy through her stitches, even…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 | Tags: cover, slideshow
Geriatric research
“Is this a house of corrections or a house of comfort?” asked the attending physician, a native of Britain, noting that American nurses have such strange practices, tethering their patients. Those comments, delivered to a group on medical practice rounds that included a young Lorraine Mion, PhD, RN, FAAN, shaped the whole course of her…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 |
Geriatric Nursing Facts
According to the Administration on Aging, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services: The population 65 years or older numbered 39.6 million in 2009, the latest year for which data is available. They represented 12.9 percent of the U.S. population, about one in every eight Americans. Older women outnumber older men at…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 |
On a Patient’s Worst Day
Minutes from now, the newly conscious patient will flail softly in her bed and try to pull out her breathing tube. A nurse will be there to stay her hand. Right now, though, she’s slipping toward death. As she was being turned in her bed, her heart rate plummeted, and it hasn’t returned. She’s gone…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 | Tags: cover, slideshow
Q+A: An Interview with Trish Trangenstein
What does the term “nursing informatics” mean? Nursing informatics is a specialty recognized by the American Nurses’ Association. Nursing informatics transforms electronic information into knowledge and eventually knowledge into wisdom needed to improve outcomes. Nursing outcomes can only be improved if you can apply wisdom across any number of areas, and a person needs advanced…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 | Tags: cover, slideshow
Raiding the Medicine Cabinet
Drug disposal event saving environment /livesby Carole Bartoo America has a drug problem. But it’s not what you think; in fact this drug problem is probably happening in your community – even in your own home. The problem is the accumulation of prescription drugs with no good plan for disposing of them. As the number…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue | Tags: slideshow
Dangers of Improper Prescription Drug Use
Prescription painkillers can cause nausea and vomiting. Mixing anti-anxiety or sleep disorder drugs with other drugs, particularly alcohol, can slow breathing and heart rate, and possibly lead to death. Abusing stimulants while taking a cold medicine with decongestants can cause dangerous increases in blood pressure and irregular heart rhythms.
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue |
Teen Prescription Drug Abuse
Source: National Institute for Drug Abuse After marijuana, prescription and over-the-counter medications account for most of the top drugs abused by 12th graders in the past year. Nearly half (47%) of teens who use prescription drugs say they get them for free from a relative or friend. More than three in five (62% or 14.6…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue |
How to Safely Dispose of Drugs
Drug take-back events are happening more frequently across the country. We challenge you to take a hard look at the contents of your medicine cabinet, purse, wallet, dresser drawer or any place where you keep medicine. Chances are you have some expired medicines. If there isn’t a drug disposal event near you, follow these steps:…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue |
Healing Through Literature
by Leslie Hill Christine Shih cared for a range of patients – adolescents in a student health center, premature babies, elderly eye patients and adults with leukemia – then turned her attention to a different set: the Elizabeth Darcys and Fanny Prices populating the Regency-period English countryside in classic novels by Jane Austen. The Setting…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue | Tags: cover, slideshow
Christine Shih’s Reading List
For a true picture of the Borderline personality Lady Susan Jane Austen Mansfield Park Jane Austen Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte The Custom of the Country Edith Wharton Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll Jane of Lantern Hill L.M. Montgomery The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath Till We Have Faces C.S. Lewis Look Homeward,…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue |
Above and Beyond
Doctorally-Prepared Nurses Making an Impact Anyone in the world of nursing knows it is a continuously evolving profession. As patient needs become more complex and health care reform overhauls take shape, who in the profession will lead the way? Many believe the answer is: doctorally-prepared nurses. The problem is that fewer than 1 percent of…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue | Tags: cover, slideshow
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