CLARKSVILLE, Tenn (CLARKSVILLENOW) – In June, Austin Peay nursing student Oliver Smith received Vanderbilt University’s Florence Nightingale Award for his achievements during the Vanderbilt Experience Student Nurse Internship Program (VESNIP)

The VESNIP is an intense seven-week program that gives college students a taste of the nursing profession. Participants rotate through units at the medical center, assisting in patient care. According to the Vanderbilt mentors who nominated him for the award, Smith “found meaningful ways to create a patient-nurse relationship with each of our patients, and it was evident they trusted him.”

On the last day of the internship, Vanderbilt hosted a celebration for the weary participants. It was 5 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. Smith had worked since 6 a.m., and while the program coordinators announced the award winners, he struggled to keep his eyes open. Then someone mentioned the names Florence Nightingale and Oliver Smith.

“I was half-listening,” Smith said. “I said, ‘What? Oh! OK!”

Smith’s nursing career first took shape in 2008 when his ailing grandfather moved in with the family. The change in household dynamic turned the curious and compassionate 10-year-old Smith into a de facto home healthcare nurse.

“My grandfather was very sick and bedridden, so I took over the role, not necessarily as his primary care person, but I was home every day taking care of him, really coordinating all his care,” Smith said.

In the years that followed, he sat with dozens of nurses who patiently explained how he could properly care for his grandfather. Their kindness, along with their ability to take an overwhelming experience and transform it into something manageable, inspired Smith.

When it came time to enroll in college, the Nashville-native looked only at school’s with good nursing programs, and Austin Peay fit the bill.

The Florence Nightingale Award is the highest honor awarded by the VESNIP program. It honors the eponymous nurse who cared for British soldiers in the Crimean War and is widely considered the founder of modern nursing. The award is given to students who reflect that same selfless spirit of service.

“It makes me happy to know I’m upholding nursing as I want it to be, which is a really sacred thing – helping people, healing people,” Said Smith.