Joan Culberson, RN, left Trilby Barnes, RN, right

More NurseWeek Features   Smoke-Free Zone   Nurses and patients tackle nicotine addiction   Bloodless Survival     Surgical techniques to use when transfusion drops out of the equation

When the National Black Nurses Association handed out its annual nursing awards this fall at its 32nd annual national conference in San Francisco, the South Central contingent was well-represented.

Three of the six 2004 NBNA national nurse award winners were from Texas and Louisiana. A lifetime achievement award also was bestowed on a California-based nursing leader, Stella Pecot Robinson, RN, PhD, who earned her undergraduate degree in New Orleans years ago.

Even the Fort Bend County Black Nurses Association chapter near Houston was honored for having the highest number of members.

To say that Texas and Louisiana nurses have a role in the NBNA — whose president is Bettye Davis-Lewis, RN, EdD, FAAN, the CEO of Diversified Health Care Systems in Houston — is like saying football and oil have a role in Texas life. It’s obvious.

Community is the reason African-American nurse organizations in the Southwest are so strong, says Joan Culberson, RN, a member of the Black Nurses Association of Greater Houston and winner of the NBNA’s Administrative Nurse of the Year honors.

“It could be the leadership that’s so gung-ho out there, beating the bushes. That’s one of the reasons I joined.” Generous scholarship funds and close working relationships with traditionally black institutions like the Prairie View A&M University College of Nursing help to foster new members in a professional environment where, nationally, less than 5% of nurses are African American.

“In the last 10 years in New Orleans, we’ve had some great presidents who have come and revived our chapter,” says Trilby Barnes, RN, owner of Medi-Lend Nursing Services and a member of the New Orleans Black Nurses Association.

The Big Easy chapter has been a strong advocate of patient education in the minority community, providing information on diabetes, cancer, heart disease (especially among women), and other problems within the black community in New Orleans.

Barnes was Nurse Entrepreneur of the Year, while Culberson earned her award by turning around the flat performance of a private day surgery center in Houston.

Joining them in the winner’s circle was Lola Denise-Jefferson, RNC, BSN, the Nurse of the Year for Community Service. Denise-Jefferson, who could not be reached for comment, is a nursing supervisor at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston.

Culberson was hired nearly two years ago as administrative director of the Museum District Aesthetic Surgery Center in Houston, owned by Woodrum/Ambulatory Systems Development. The center specializes in face-lifts, breast augmentations, abdominoplasties, liposuction, and other elective procedures.

At the time, she says, “we weren’t operating at a profit. With a few changes, I was able to turn that around where we were working in the positive.”

She staggered the staff shifts of nurses and other employees to meet peak demands, and consolidated purchases with one supplier to save costs. This was while serving her dual role as administrative director and the evaluator of nursing practice to ensure “safe, efficient, and therapeutically effective” care. “I enjoy the best of two worlds,” says Culberson, who originally served as an intensive care nurse before switching to the ambulatory surgery care setting.

Barnes recently marked the 10th anniversary of the founding of her Medi-Lend agency, which she began in 1994 with one employee — herself.

“I was pretty satisfied being an independent nurse contractor,” Barnes says. “And it was quite easy to transform into an agency. The clients I was working for, who saw my agency name on the list, began to call my house for other nurses.”

She recruited freelance nurses to come work for her agency, and made her splash when she made a successful contract bid with Charity Hospital in New Orleans — where she studied and trained to be an RN years earlier at Charity’s School of Nursing.

The experience gave Barnes a boost in her entrepreneurial pursuits, as well as an appreciation for the role of health care management.

“I always tell anybody when I’m speaking at engagements: If you are a nurse and want to be in the nursing business, realize you may not necessarily know the business of nursing.”

To comment on this story, send e-mail to editorsc@nurseweek.com.