Innovations in Nursing Practice

Professional nursing underwent a cataclysm of change during the active years of the Student Health Coalition.  From the beginning, students in the Coalition nurtured those changes.  Often, without even a plan or much in the way of self-awareness, certainly without a political agenda, at least at first, young nurses and nursing students who joined the Coalition embraced their mission to build a practice based on the needs of the communities.  Their embrace often brought them up against opposition from existing health care culture and state and federal law.  Eventually, nurses, alongside their medical, legal, and community partners, became powerful spokespeople for community health needs, including the need to expand existing nurse practice paradigms.

The intersection of radical change in nursing practice with the work of the Student Health Coalition in the 1960s and 1970s is well-described in this detailed timeline. It chronologically describes changes in nursing practice law, student and faculty activities at Vanderbilt’s Nursing School, and developments in communities where SHC nursing students and newly-graduated nurse practitioners were working to improve access to healthcare for underserved communities.

 

Martha Stucker, pioneer advance practice nurse who welcomed SHC to in Clairfield TN in 1969
Martha Stucker, pioneer advance practice nurse who welcomed the SHC to Clairfield, Tenn. in 1969.
Ann Baile Hamric meets patients at the Smithville Health Fair, Summer 1970. The commitment to robust followup after health fairs was first developed after the Smithville health fair in 1970.
Ann Baile Hamric meets patients at the Smithville Health Fair, Summer 1970. The commitment to robust followup after health fairs was first developed by Ann and the nurses at Smithville.
Dana Ellis, RN and community leader Square Mormon at the Health Fair venue, Rossville TN 1973.
Dana Ellis, RN, and community leader Square Morman at the Rossville Health Fair in Rossville, Tenn. 1973.
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Health Councils partnered with nurses to campaign for changes to nurse practice laws and Medicare reimbursement policy.
Rosie Hammond, RN, on a mule up near Briceville TN, 1971, at the home of community leader Byrd Duncan.
Rosie Hammond, RN, on a mule up near Briceville, Tenn. 1971, at the home of community leader Byrd Duncan. Rosie helped develop the Coalition commitment to followup and home visits based on findings at health fairs.
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Carolyn Burr on a lunch break in 1971. Carolyn devoted a lifetime career in public health research, especially on AIDS transmission in newborns, deeply influenced by the Coalition experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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