Thunderbolt wins national nurse award

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman David Owsianka
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  A Luke Air Force Base Airman was named one of the top nurses in the country in an announcement made Monday.

Maj. Betty Venth, 56th Medical Group Family Health Flight commander, is the national 2013 Nursing Excellence award winner for patient and staff management.

A national search is held every year by nurse.com to find the most exceptional nurses from across the country. Prior to winning at the national level, Venth won the Midwest region Aug. 9 in Chandler. Five nurses in six specialized categories were chosen as finalists from hundreds of nominations.

After serving in the military for 17 years, Venth considers her objectivity one of her greatest strengths in patient and staff management. Nevertheless, her first shock came at the "Giving Excellence Meaning" awards banquet when she was named the winner for this category and then again after learning of being selected as the national award winner.

"I was honored and surprised to be nominated for this award," she said. "I had no expectation of winning, so I was surprised when I won due to the amount of competition I had."

The categories are advancing and leading the profession, clinical nursing, inpatient care, education and mentorship, volunteerism and service, patient and staff management, and home, community and ambulatory care.

Venth was nominated by Col. Carol Andrews, 56th MDG chief nurse, for her efforts in leading a team of 69 members in a clinic that has more than 17,000 patients enrolled and manages more than 53,000 patient appointments annually.

"Major Venth is a marvelous Airman," Andrews said. "She has the ability to successfully lead all her Airmen while having a tremendous impact in the medical group. Her receiving the award is validation of all her hard work and effort she puts in as a flight commander."

While overseeing her staff of physicians, midlevel providers, nurses and technicians in a family health clinic, Venth completed two process-improvement studies for the clinic, resulting in team continuity and a surge in patient satisfaction. She also developed a management tool that tracks providers' weekly appointments, ensuring appointment standards and provider availability meet patient demand.

"I really love looking at processes and procedures and finding a way to make things more efficient with quality patient outcomes," Venth said.

She noted her initial inspiration for pursuing a nursing career stemmed from the many nursing roles available.

"I've always enjoyed learning new roles and trying to understand all the dynamics of a healthcare organization," she said. "Each of these opportunities has given me numerous experiences to build upon in shaping my leadership skills and managing my staff and patient population and having excellence results."