Belmont University’s School of Nursing organized and hosted a “health records summit” involving representatives from the nursing programs at several area universities and from several area hospitals, with a goal of standardizing the collection and distribution of health records from nursing students.
“Within the environments in which we work, student health records are an issue,” said Dr. Debra Wollaber, Dean of the College of Health Sciences and the School of Nursing at Belmont. “Although all of us recognize that the overall purpose of obtaining accurate health records from our students is vital to the safety of our patients, students, faculty and professional colleagues, the process we use to request, gather, compile, analyze and distribute these data is faulty at best.
“To say the least, the process is time-consuming, costly in some cases, redundant, and frustrating for each of us.”
Representatives from Aquinas College, Austin Peay State University, Belmont University, Columbia State Community College, Cumberland University, Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt University, and the Tennessee Board of Regents attended, along with representatives from Baptist Hospital, Centennial Medical Center, Maury Regional Medical Center, Saint Thomas Hospital, Summit Medical Center, Southern Hills Medical Center, Vanderbilt Medical Center, VA Medical Center, Williamson Medical Center, the Metro Nashville public health department.
