by Matt Batcheldor
Several Vanderbilt nurses have been elected to leadership of the Tennessee Nurses Association (TNA), including president and vice president. Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurses make up three of the seven officers named at the TNA’s annual conference, which was held virtually on Oct. 30, 2020.
Julie Hamm, MSN, RN, ACNP-BC, was named president-elect. Hamm is manager of the adult Urology Clinic at The Vanderbilt Clinic. She joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2002 as a research nurse and progressed to roles as cardiac surgery nurse practitioner and nurse practitioner at The Vanderbilt Clinic and One Hundred Oaks clinics, then manager of the Vanderbilt Preoperative Evaluation Clinic (VPEC) and Interventional Pain Clinics.
Hamm has been instrumental in quality improvements and support of the Vanderbilt Pre-operative Evaluation Center and Interventional Pain clinic employees and the patients they care for, in addition to perianesthesia nursing statewide. She has presented multiple times and has written articles for the Tennessee Society of Perianesthesia Nurses (TSPAN) regarding Full Practice Authority legislation and potential implications and impact upon nursing and Tennessee residents.
Hamm holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Baptist Health Sciences University in Memphis.
Heather Jackson, PhD, APRN, FNP-BC, NEA-BC, was elected vice president. Jackson is administrative director of Advanced Practice for Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
Jackson has served in different capacities at Vanderbilt since August 2006 when she started with Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt as a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. As a practitioner, she cared for pediatric trauma and surgery patients before joining the Vanderbilt Interventional Pain Clinic at One Hundred Oaks. Before being named to her current position last year, she was director for Advanced Practice for Outpatient Neuroscience, Orthopaedics and Surgery.
Jackson holds a PhD in Nursing Science from Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, a Master of Science of Nursing from Middle Tennessee State University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Kerry Copeland, MSN, RN, CNRN, CRRN, NPD-BC, was elected director of education. Copeland is a nursing education specialist and primary nurse planner. Prior to joining Vanderbilt in 2017 she was education program manager for the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
Copeland has a Master of Science in Nursing Education from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Loyola University Chicago.
“I want to congratulate Julie Hamm, Heather Jackson and Kerry Copeland for being elected to these important leadership roles and for the expertise they will provide while serving the TNA. Each will bring key insights that will advance their profession and elevate patient care to benefit all Tennesseans. We have every reason to be proud of all our nurse colleagues and today, especially these three,” said C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for VUMC.