Nursing

January 23, 2025

Terrell Smith retiring after distinguished career at Vanderbilt

Smith was at the forefront of creating patient and family councils that advise individual Vanderbilt hospital entities from the patient/family perspective.

Terrell Smith, MSN, RN, right, with Karen Keady, PhD, RN, at a reception celebrating Smith’s career at Vanderbilt. Terrell Smith, MSN, RN, right, with Karen Keady, PhD, RN, at a reception celebrating Smith’s career.

Terrell Smith, MSN, RN, senior director of Patient and Family Engagement, is retiring after more than three decades at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Smith was at the forefront of creating patient and family councils that advise individual Vanderbilt hospital entities from the patient/family perspective. Vanderbilt was among the first group of academic medical centers to create such councils to emphasize patient and family engagement and partnership in improving quality and service.

“Terrell Smith was the perfect person to lead in this role at VUMC,” said David Haynes, MD, MMHC, Chief Patient Experience Officer. “Her passionate and dedicated service to this position has resulted in Patient and Family Engagement being recognized as one of the top programs in the world. The programs and people she developed contribute significantly to our strong patient-centered culture at VUMC.”

Smith is capping 53 years as a nurse, starting in her hometown at Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham at age 19 in the pediatric intensive care unit. Immediately, she knew she was in the right profession.

“The strength and resilience in some of these children was just wonderful,” she said. “It’s inspiring.”

Two years later she was in Brazil as a Peace Corps volunteer nurse, where she spent three years. She was the only registered nurse for a 105-bed pediatric unit. Her career took her back to Children’s of Alabama and a master’s degree in nursing from University of Alabama-Birmingham, then to Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, where she was assistant director of nursing for Pediatrics and Women’s Health.

Smith was recruited to Vanderbilt in 1993 to be the director of nursing/administrative director for what would become Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. At the time it was a “hospital within a hospital” occupying the fourth, fifth and half of the sixth floor of Vanderbilt University Hospital. Smith was liaison for operational services such as Nutrition Services, Social Work and Environmental Services.

Terrell Smith, MSN, RN, with Marilyn Dubree, MSN, RN, NE-BC. (photo by Susan Urmy)
Terrell Smith, MSN, RN, left, with Marilyn Dubree, MSN, RN, NE-BC. (photo by Susan Urmy)

Two years after coming to Vanderbilt, she helped establish Monroe Carell’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, the first of what would become a constellation of advisory groups offering a patient and family perspective.

She said it all started from a letter from a patient whose child had a large teratoma (tumor) removed. From the clinician perspective, the care seemed completely appropriate. After surgery, the child was bathed, and a bow was placed on the child’s head.

But that’s not what the child’s mother wanted. “She was like, ‘Who do you think you are that you put the first bow on my baby’s head?’”

The woman was invited to a panel that evolved into that first patient and family council, which began meeting monthly. “And we started getting a very different perspective from the other side of the bed,” Smith said.

That council would prove instrumental in planning the architectural features, processes and staff training for the freestanding Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, which opened in 2004.

The patient-and-family advisory work would become Smith’s specialty. In 2006, she became director of Patient- and Family-Centered Care for Vanderbilt University Hospitals and Clinics, which evolved into the position she has today, senior director of Patient and Family Engagement.

In 2007, the patient and family advisory councils expanded beyond pediatric patients and their families when the Vanderbilt University Hospital council started. That was followed by new councils at Vanderbilt Behavioral Health, Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital, Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital and Vanderbilt Bedford Hospital. Leadership regularly attends the meetings to listen to patient perspectives and collaborate on key initiatives.

In addition, Smith oversees a variety of diagnostic-specific advisory groups, such as Adult Lung Transplant and Metro Nashville Public Schools clinics, which are operated by Vanderbilt.

In 2015, Smith launched Advise Vanderbilt, an online advisor community. The program is open to anyone interested in improving the patient experience at Vanderbilt — including patients, faculty and staff — at advisevanderbilt.com. Participants respond to regular surveys that gauge patient experiences. Six months after launching the program, she had thousands of participants.

In her current role, Smith oversees Vanderbilt Interpreter Services, Patient Education and Health Literacy, a department she created; Volunteer Services, Pastoral Care and a clinical pastoral education residency program which was also created under her guidance. She is particularly proud of helping the 2005 launch of Project SEARCH at Vanderbilt, a program that trains young people with disabilities to work in a hospital. “This is the most successful program among over 700 Project SEARCH sites in the world outside the original one in Cincinnati,” she said.

She said it’s the people at Vanderbilt who kept her coming back every day for three decades.

“You are never bored at Vanderbilt,” she said. “It’s a special place.”

Karen Keady, PhD, RN, who became VUMC’s System Chief Nursing Officer in July, said though she has worked with Smith briefly, she quickly observed she is an inspiration to her Vanderbilt colleagues.

“She is a visionary leader and a trailblazer, one of the first to champion patient- and family-centered care at a medical center,” Keady said. “Her advocacy and creativity have helped us transform the way we care for patients and their families, and she has truly made a difference in the lives of so many. We are going to miss her. As she begins a new chapter, we wish Terrell the very best. We want her to know that she leaves a tremendous legacy for VUMC to carry forward.”