Community Outreach Programs
The Whitson-Hester School of Nursing has a long history of local and regional health outreach programming. These initiatives benefit the community and our emerging health professionals entering the field by providing them with real-life clinical experiences.
ESTAR Sanos - Be Healthy
ESTAR Sanos - Be Healthy began in 2020 by professor and family and pediatric nurse
practitioner Melissa Geist, to address declining vaccination rates in the rural and
Hispanic communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The program, supported by the Tennessee Department of Health, continues to provide a variety of free vaccines, health education, special events, and more for the Upper Cumberland region. For detailed information, please email behealthy@tntech.edu.
ABOUT ESTAR Sanos - Be Healthy
Hope Springs Clinic
The Hope Springs Clinic, for urgent mental health care, serves the Upper Cumberland
through a partnership supported by the Rural Reimagined grant program, part of Tech's
Center for Rural Innovation. The call center is open five (5) days a week to assist
clients through difficult times while helping with longer-term solutions.
For help or to ask questions, message us on Facebook, email hopespringsclinic@gmail.com, or call/text 931-256-2968, or click below to visit the website.
CHART (Collaboration for Healthcare Access in Rural Tennessee)
The CHART program was initiated by nursing professor Jennifer L. Mabry in 2021, due
to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on well-child check-ups which causing many children
to fall behind in basic immunizations and physical benchmark screenings. The pandemic
highlighted other social determinants compounding the deficit in healthcare access
in the region, including lack of transportation, pervasive poverty within the preschool-age
population, and homelessness.
In response to needs of the community, Mabry met with and formed a partnership with the regional LBJ&C Head Start Program (begun in the Upper Cumberland in 1964) to discuss these gaps in healthcare access experienced by children enrolled at the centers located in Jackson and Putnam counties, specifically. The collaboration developed an academic-practice partnership between WHSN and LBJ&C Head Start to improve healthcare access to the vulnerable population of children, ages 3-5 years, within these medically underserved populations.
For more information, please email Dr. Mabry, jmabry@tntech.edu.
Tennessee Center for Rural Innovation
The goal of the 麻豆果冻传媒 Center for Rural Innovation (TCRI) is to create companies
and build economic development by providing technical assistance to main street businesses
and entrepreneurs within the tourism, technology, innovation, retail, and agriculture
sectors.