News
Betty Baker Selected as a Nightingale Finalist
For more than 40 years Betty Baker, RN, has provided medical expertise, human compassion, and care for patients in hospitals as well as home settings.
This month, at the Centennial Regional Nightingale and Centennial Regional Nursing Awards Event in Fort Morgan, she was selected as the region’s Nightingale finalist, recognizing her nursing contributions and accomplishments.
The Nightingale Awards have been given since 1985 to honor registered nurses who best exemplify the philosophy and practice of Florence Nightingale, a 19th century nursing pioneer, who epitomized the art of helping people toward their optimal health.
Registered Nurses throughout the state are nominated by solicitation from the Colorado Area Health Education Centers System (AHEC) and the Colorado Springs Committee in the fall of each year. Each region hosts a local event for nominees. Finalists are selected by the regions and forwarded to the State Selection Committee, who determines the recipients. Across the state, 247 nurses have been nominated for this award in the five Colorado state regions.
On May 12, Baker, along with the other 14 state finalists, will be honored at the State Nightingale gala in Denver and will compete for one of the six Nightingale awards that will be awarded that evening.
This year 21 registered nurses were nominated for the Nightingale Award from the northeast region comprised of Kit Carson, Larimer, Lincoln, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and Yuma Counties. Baker was one of four Registered Nurses from Morgan County who were nominees for the prestigious nursing award. Sue Glazier, ER nurse at Colorado Plains Medical Center, Aaron Guerrero, Home Health nurse at Colorado Plains Medical Center, and Roberta (Bobbi) Naill, Hospice nurse at Hospice & Palliative Care were also considered.
In addition to Nightingale Awards, Centennial Regional Nursing Awards for Human Caring were also presented to area LPN and RNs. Julianne Fritz, RN, at North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley; Susan Ihlenfeldt, RN, at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins and Front Range Community College Associate Professor; Jenna Swarbrick, RN, at North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley; and Khris Vroegop, RN, at Sterling Regional Medical Center received the Centennial RN Regional Nursing Awards.
The Centennial LPN Regional Award for Human Caring was given this year to Letha (Lee) Kitchin who works at Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center.
Theresa Gonzales, Director of Nursing at Eben Ezer, who recommended Kitchin for the honor noted, “Lee is a caring force in her small tight-knit community. A friend’s husband was experiencing the challenges of cancer. After a brief visit, her intuition told her that her friend needed help. That evening Lee called and asked her friend if she would feel better if she came to help with his care. She then packed her bags and moved in to help provide the direct care and support so desperately needed by this family.”
Several co-workers at Colorado Plains Medical Center contributed to Baker’s nomination and commented on the high regard people in the community have for the veteran RN.
“In the 16 years I’ve known Betty I’ve witnessed unbroken kindness, cloudless sunshine, perpetual joy, constant compassion,” notes Brenda Shelton, Director of Medical Records at CPMC.
Sonya Bass, RN, Director of Quality & Risk Management at CPMC adds, “Everything she does and is, is about putting the patient first. . . I have had so many patients tell me wonderful stories how Betty has helped them or their loved ones. She is wonderful support for new nurses entering our profession.”
Baker received the news of her award from her daughter, Sharon Kauffman, who presented the award speech.
Says Kauffman, “As children I can remember people telling my brother and me how lucky we were to have a nurse as a mother. At the time we did not believe that at all . . . there had to be lots of blood and no crying or hollering before she would check out the injuries. No longer are people telling me how lucky I am. . . they are now telling me how fortunate THEY are to have encountered Nurse Betty. The stories often start with ‘I don’t know what we would have done if she had not been there’.”
Baker graduated from Wiggins High School. She attended Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing in Denver, Colorado, and graduated with her registered nursing degree, RN, in 1958. In 1985 she returned to the classroom where she received additional wound care education and certification as an ET Nurse at the School of Enterostomal Therapy at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
After earning her RN degree, Baker worked at Presbyterian Hospital as a staff nurse before coming to work at Fort Morgan Community Hospital (now Colorado Plains Medical Center). She worked a few years at the Fort Morgan Medical Group in the 1960’s as well as for Colorado State University in a health education pilot program in the 1970’s. She returned to Fort Morgan and nursing in the early 1980’s where she worked at Northeast Home Health Care as a staff nurse, a nursing supervisor, and an enterostomal therapist. For more than eight years she served as the Homecare Director at Alliance Healthcare (currently Colorado Plains Medical Center Home Care).
For the past six years, Baker has held the position of Case Manager, where she helps patients and their family members with utilization review, discharge planning and social services. She also still serves as a wound care specialist and tends to patients needing assistance in this area.
Not only is nursing important to her, but community involvement is also high on Baker’s list. She has served as a board member of the American Cancer Society, Hospice, the Morgan County Adult Protection Committee, the Fort Morgan Housing Authority, and the Morgan Community College’s Nursing Advisory Board. She also served as a 4-H leader for 10 years.
Although sometimes a challenge, Baker notes that the nursing profession is also a rewarding one.
Says Baker, “I found what real clinical skills were when moving to a small rural hospital – working all shifts, often sixteen hours a day, covering medical, surgical, obstetrics, emergency room, and a nursing home wing. I like being part of a team. As a nurse I have touched many lives, cared for, loved, and cried with many. Nursing is a profession I love.”