Dean Colleen Conway-Welch reacts to a comment from Dr. Harry Jacobson at Tuesday’s nursing school orientation. (photos by Dana Johnson)
Students travel far to attend
VUSN
Diana Johnson, center, laughs with her new nursing school classmates, from left, Cathryn Sullivan, Brooke McClendon, and Courtney Elliot, during a lunch break from orientation activities at the School of Nursing Tuesday.
Lindsay Watson jokes with fellow classmates at the orientation Tuesday.
Registered nurse Annie Nodestine traveled a long way from home to attend Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Nodestine grew up on a Navajo Indian reservation in Chinle, Ariz. She is pursuing her MSN degree and plans on going back to Arizona to help the people she’s always known.
“I’ve lived on the reservation all my life. I was ready to do something different,” she said. Excited and a bit nervous, she is already homesick.
“It is really different here,” she said of Nashville. “I really miss home.”
Nodestine and her 8- and 9-year-old sons just moved to their new home in student housing. “They like it here,” she said.
She is looking forward to December 2003 when she will graduate with her master’s degree and, more importantly, move back home. Nodestine will work for Indian Health Services at Chinle Hospital, her employer for the last 10 years.
She applied to Vanderbilt after working with Vanderbilt School of Medicine graduate Dr. Jill Moses in Chinle. Moses is the daughter of Vanderbilt Cancer Center’s director Dr. Hal Moses.
“Jill and I are good friends,” Nodestine said. “She talked me into applying here.”
Nodestine was among 250 students welcomed this week at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing’s Fall Orientation.
The 250-plus student body was briefed on everything from Vanderbilt’s academic programs and current research initiatives to how to get their photo ID badges.
Dean Colleen Conway-Welch, in her welcoming remarks, challenged the students to excel while at Vanderbilt and later in their careers.
“My dad always told me to ‘shoot for the top. There’s more room there,’” she said. “You are shooting for the top.”
Conway-Welch cautioned the group, however, that being at the top requires hard work.
“This is a different program than most,” she said. “You will work very hard. You will wonder why you ever decided to do this. But we will help you through this.”
Highlighting the school’s graduate programs, Conway-Welch discussed Vanderbilt’s “bridge” program, which provides multiple entry options for students with different educational and professional backgrounds.
“One of the reasons we started the bridge program was to attract a rich diversity of students,” she said looking across the room filled with people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds and from varied geographical locations. “We are glad you are here and will do everything to help you be successful.”
Dr. Harry R. Jacobson, vice chancellor for Health Affairs, also welcomed the incoming class.
“You’re about to enter a profession that demands expertise and a detail for excellence,” Jacobson told the group. “Money and glamour didn’t get you here. Your intelligence and compassion got you here today.
“I’m extremely pleased you are here today and welcome you to the Vanderbilt family.”
Another person traveling a long way to attend VUSN is Brooke McClendon of Tulsa, Okla. She, however, did not have to move to Nashville like Nodestine.
McClendon, who has a bachelor’s degree in nursing, is pursuing her neonatal nurse practitioner degree through the distance learning program. She will visit the Vanderbilt campus several times throughout the year and do her clinicals in Tulsa — the reason she chose Vanderbilt. “Most schools won’t let you start the degree like that.”
Sarah Ramsey, director of Student Affairs at VUSN, is excited about this year’s student body. “It’s a bigger class than we’ve had in the past, but it seems like a nice group,” she said. Last year, 225 students were admitted to the School of Nursing.
Of the incoming class, 130 student are pre-specialty students without nursing degrees, 100 are bachelor-of-science-degree nurses seeking master’s degrees, and 19 are registered nurses also seeking higher degrees.