Did You Know?

In 2011, Good Samaritan Foundation celebrates 60 years of service to nursing students and nursing schools in Texas.

Good Samaritan Foundation is the leading private provider of nursing scholarships in the State of Texas.

In 60 years, Good Samaritan Foundation has awarded more than $15 million to more than 15,000 nursing students in Texas.

Profiles of Excellence

Thousands of Texas nurses demonstrate excellence in clinical practice, patient care, education, administration, and research each day. Good Samaritan annually recognizes the "best of the best" in the Houston/Texas Gulf Coast area through its Excellence in Nursing Awards.

Excellence in Nursing Award Recipients for 2009 are profiled below.

Olinda Pruitt Johnson, RNC, MSN, CNS

Harris County Hospital District Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital

2009 Gold Award Winner: Clinical Practice in a Large Hospital

Olinda Johnson is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Women and Children’s Services at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital and has been employed in the Harris County Hospital District since 1975. Brenda Thomas has worked with Olinda for over 30 years and wrote in her nomination, “Two words immediately come to mind to describe Olinda: passionate and giving. She is loved and respected by all the disciplines. Literally hundreds of nurses state the impact she had on their career choice. She gives nursing 150%, and nursing is a lifestyle of respect, trust, and accountability for her 24/7. Olinda is the best kept secret in the hospital district.”

Olinda has been successful in achieving and mastering nursing at its highest degree because she combines 30 years of clinical nursing at the bedside with a desire to pursue educational challenges and advanced certifications and a willingness to volunteer and serve within the hospital and her community.
Initially, she began her medical career as a unit clerk and, over the last thirty years, has returned to school to further her education to obtain an RN BSN degree and Master’s in Education of Nursing. Olinda recently completed her Doctoral Degree in Nursing from Texas Woman’s University College of Nursing in Houston. In addition to advancing her formal nursing education, Olinda holds various certifications to validate her clinical expertise in the Perinatal Arena and utilizes that skill set to teach, lecture, mentor, and promote excellence in health care in her department and throughout the community.

As a clinician in Labor and Delivery, Olinda continues to provide direct care to high-risk patients. As an educator, she prepares and implements educational offerings within the hospital and in the community. Recognized as a national speaker, she travels the country speaking not only on obstetrical topics, but also on the value of the nursing profession as a discipline. Olinda’s research interest is providing a bereavement intervention for women who experience early pregnancy loss (before twenty weeks). She is a published author and advocate of breastfeeding. As a researcher, she collects and analyzes data for the improvement of nursing care on the unit.

As a liaison, she uses her clinical experience, education, research, and passion for the nursing profession to work with physicians and nurses to enhance and develop their professional relationship, which improves patient and nursing satisfaction and promotes safe patient care. She values the opportunity to volunteer on a variety of hospital committees aimed at improving the image of the organization by working directly with community leaders, schools, churches, and community events.

Olinda is active in professional organizations that promote and encourage nursing as a profession and perinatal nursing as a specialty. She is a wife and mother of two adult sons and provides care for her 84-year- old mother in her home. Olinda’s goal after completion of the doctoral degree is to continue to promote the discipline of nursing through practice, education, research, volunteering, and advocacy.

Heather Sharp, BS, RN

Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital

2009 Gold Award Winner: Clinical Practice in a Small Hospital

Heather Sharp is a registered nurse at Memorial Hermann Northeast, where she began her career in the Emergency Department in 2005. Heather earned her B.S. in Applied Science from Centenary College of Louisiana in 2002, and, immediately following college graduation, Heather and her husband of six months moved to the Houston area. With a slow job market, Heather spent the first few months after graduation as a volunteer at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands to explore her options in the medical field, where she discovered her calling to become a nurse. In 2003, Heather began the nursing program at North Harris College when her first of two daughters was 10 weeks old and impressed her peers while simultaneously maintaining her dedication and focus in nursing school with being a new mother. Heather served as the President of the Student Nurses Association and graduated at the top of her class in 2005.

As a nurse at Memorial Hermann Northeast, Heather has taken on leadership roles in the Hospital Clinical Practice Results Committee, Emergency Department Council, and ED Redesign committees and serves as relief charge nurse. Additionally, Heather is actively involved in the ED orientation of new employees and staff education and believes the “best way to train staff is to properly educate them from the beginning.” This year, Heather was awarded the 2009 Clinical Excellence Award at Memorial Hermann Northeast. Her coworkers are enthusiastic supporters of Heather and recognize her as a “nurse’s nurse,” and her supervisors describe her using praises such as “She’s exactly what you would expect a real nurse to be” or “She represents the best of the best nurses.” Her co-workers appreciate her sense of humor to ease difficult situations; her ability to provide empathic, caring concern to patients and staff; and her commitment to set a positive tone within the department.

Heather practices nursing with passion and a true love for her patients and coworkers. Her dedication to the emergency department and desire to see it succeed is demonstrated by her continuous involvement above expectation. Chief Nursing Officer Gloria Tobin nominated Heather for this award and wrote, “Heather believes that healthcare excellence is not achieved by a single provider, but the collaboration of dedicated, compassionate individuals who genuinely care about their patients. She is one of those individuals.” Heather believes that excellence in nursing is achieved when compassionate nurses treat their patients as they would treat their own family members. According to Heather, “Nursing is knowing that you made every effort to safely treat, care for, and act as an advocate for the patient while expecting nothing in return.” Heather credits her faith, husband, family, and co-workers for her success as a nurse.

Lucinda "Cindy" Welch, RN, BSN

Houston Hospice

2009 Gold Award Winner: Clinical Practice in a Hospice/ Home Health Care/ Clinic/ Other Setting

Cindy Welch didn’t always know she wanted to be a nurse--she just knew that she loved medical science. However, one very cold, icy day she found herself as a mother with two small boys who had the chicken pox, one of whom was very sick. Due to the ice in the Midwest, the roads and offices were closed all over town, and she didn’t know what to do to help her sons. That afternoon, she resolved that she was going to be a nurse. She had a desire to know what to do in a medical situation and never wanted to feel so inadequate again. The very next week, on the last day of acceptance, she enrolled in the spring semester at the local community college. After several twists and turns, she graduated fromUT Tyler with a Bachelor’s degree in nursing.

During her final year of school, Cindy had the opportunity to work as a “nurse intern” on a medical-step down unit and discovered cardiac nursing. After graduation, Cindy began her nursing career in a newly developed Cardiovascular – ICU. After moving to the Bryan-College Station area, she floated from general ICU to the Emergency Room. Mindy Lawrence, VP Clinical Excellence, wrote in Cindy’s nomination, “With Cindy’s rich work history in several areas of nursing, she has 22 years of nursing experience and proven success with handling any number of different, responsible positions with new organizations and within new fields of nursing. This included the start-up and management of a correctional facility infirmary for juvenile males and state-wide nursing program orientations. Her work with cancer patients in both clinic and research settings and with heart patients in a cath lab setting further expanded her clinical base. Cindy is able to readily assimilate new information, but she is also able to effectively disseminate and communicate this knowledge to all levels of staff, patients, and families for positive outcomes.”

While each unique branch of nursing increased her knowledge and skills, Cindy still hadn’t found that perfect fit for her nursing calling. She recalls, “One day, quite by chance, I found a tiny ad in the Bryan newspaper advertising for a hospice nurse. I took a chance and applied for the position. I had seen critically ill patients die in ICU, and I knew that there had to be a better way for nurses to care for patients who were terminally ill and dying. There had to be a better way for us to care for the sickest patients.”

Finally, Cindy had found her true calling and discovered her passion for hospice nursing and says, “For me, hospice nursing is the epitome of nursing-- caring for the whole person and all those involved in their care in their own environment, not the sterile halls of the hospital.” When asked about why someone would choose such a difficult specialty, Cindy answers, “I marvel at the opportunity I have each day to step into people’s lives and offer the expertise and support they need to remain in their homes with dignity and comfort through one of the most challenging health experiences one ever meets.”

Michelle Eppers, RN, BSN

Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital

2009 Gold Award Winner: Nursing Education: Clinician

Michelle Eppers recalls, “There are what I call ‘light-bulb moments’ in life, and I remember early in my nursing career as an obstetric nurse having a particularly busy night with many challenges. I helped my patient deliver her third child, and it was time for him to eat. The patient, exhausted from delivery, fell asleep, so I dimmed the lights for her. I took the baby into the infant room, sat down (for the first time that night), and rocked him while he learned how to suck a bottle for the first time. Feeding a newborn his first bottle is an experience that warms your heart and makes you realize what a true miracle birth can be. As he sucked, dribbled milk, burped, and drifted off to sleep, I remember thinking to myself I have the best job in the world.”

Immediately after high school, Michelle began her nursing education at San Jacinto College of Nursing, completed an Associate Degree in Nursing, and then started a nursing internship at Memorial Hermann Hospital on the Labor and Delivery Unit in May of 1999. The unit quickly grew and combined with Mother/Baby and High Risk Antepartum units to become Women’s Services. Shortly after completing her internship and marrying her high school sweetheart, she began coursework for her BSN at UTMB while working as a staff nurse. In 2001, she graduated from UTMB with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Science Nursing –Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner degree at The University of Texas Health Science Center.

Michelle started her obstetrical nursing career at Memorial Hermann Hospital ten years ago and worked as a staff nurse, preceptor, and level 3 nurse for seven years. For the last two years, she has served as the Women’s Services Clinical Resource Specialist for a service line that includes labor and delivery, high-risk antepartum and postpartum, the care of mother and newborn after delivery, a triage area, operating rooms, and a recovery room. Sandra Uribe, Clinical Director of Women’s Services, writes, “I stand in amazement and awe as I have seen Michelle grow into her role as an educator. Her goal is to elevate nursing as a profession by motivating and inspiring others to be accountable to positive outcomes and advance learning by questioning and evaluating practice, providing informed practice and innovating through research and experiential learning.” Michelle assists newly hired staff in the transition to their role on the unit, helps with current staff development, and aids in the hospital’s efforts to reach set benchmarks. Her focus in her role now is to give the nurses what they need to care for their patients with ease and efficiency. She strives to create an environment that is open and comfortable for new and experienced nurses to question current practice and gain relevant resources.

During her video interview, Michelle said that she was initially challenged to transition from her role as a nurse involved in direct patient care to her behind-the-scenes role as nurse educator to teach nurses. She wondered if her desire to make on impact on patient care was being fulfilled, but now she knows she has found her calling to make a substantial difference on patient care and safety. Ms. Uribe writes, “Through her work as an educator, in an indirect way, she has touched the lives of many novices and affected many patient outcomes. Every caregiver she touches then impacts numerous patients and staff. Michelle is a wonderful, inspirational educator, who has taught so many to care not only for patients, but for each other.”

Huberta Corazon "Bette" Thiam Cozart, RN, MS

Prairie View A&M University College of Nursing

2009 Gold Award Winner: Nursing Education: Faculty

Bette Corazon's current and former students revere and adore her in equal amounts and added supplemental pages of praise to her nomination, which ranged from “best instructor I have ever had” to “passionate about nursing as an instructor” to student Chidmma Ughanze’s comments, “Ms. Cozart is the best teacher ever. I haven’t ever had a professor really sit down and address the key points of what is needed in a nursing care plan. Her teaching methods are clear, precise, and extremely helpful. The way she teaches shows not only me, but also her students, that she is knowledgeable in the nursing process and really understands how to care for a patient. I love this teacher!”

Student Pamela Rule, continues, “Ms. Cozart is very organized in presenting her topic, goes from basic to generalized overview, then going back again into the little aspects that students get confused with. She has a stern voice that tells or signals her students that in her class, she warrants your full attention to learn the subject matter. After her discussion of the nursing care plan in the inhouse clinical, I have said, ‘WOW!,’ three times in my head because I have never looked or went in-depth with making my care plans until after she explained it!”

Bette Cozart did not initially set out to be a nurse. Her parents, both elementary school teachers with Master’s degrees, instilled a love and pursuit of education, so it was “indelibly imprinted in her DNA to become an educator.” As a child, Bette envisioned herself teaching first grade, but, one day, her grandfather predicted, “Child, you ARE going to America!” which caused Bette to begin to dream of countries beyond her native Philippines. When Bette was in high-school, her mother was diagnosed with COPD, and, as the only child, Bette became her mother’s helper, which brought nursing into focus. In college, Bette majored in nursing, graduated with a BSN, and was employed at Philippine General Hospital, a premier teaching hospital in her native country. Ambitious nurses encouraged Bette to apply to work overseas, and she was approved for a work visa in the USA. Bette said, “I chose to apply in Texas because of its designation as the Lone Star State. Texas is like me. Lone Star. Lone child of my parents.”

After working enthusiastically as a nurse for so many years, Bette’s dream of becoming a teacher was finally realized when she was hired at Prairie View A & M University College of Nursing after earning her Master of Science degree from Texas Woman’s University College of nursing in 1997. Dr. Braithwaite, an early mentor, encouraged Bette to pursue her doctoral degree, and she is currently completing her dissertation. Dr. Braithwaite said, “Bette is a keeper in academia.”

When asked about her personal philosophy, Bette cites a favorite quote by the philosopher, Gibran, “The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise, he doesn’t bid you to enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.” Students in Bette’s class find the satisfaction of achieving much more than what they thought they could originally do, and student Beverly Ijeoma Uchegbu sums this by writing; “The knowledge that Ms. Cozart has given me makes me more interested to want to continue to work harder and achieve my goal to be a nurse. I realized that Ms. Cozart has officially lit a FIRE that I had thought was already burning, but it was not nearly enough until today.”

Bette is married to a true-blue Texan, James Cozart, and they have a “lovely, loving, and intelligent only child,” named Camille Claire, who is now a senior at St. Pius X High School in Houston.