Evelyn Becton Smith found out Monday night she was the top employee of the year at Lenoir Memorial Hospital this year. She was awarded the President’s Service of Excellence Award, the equivalent of employee of the year.
“I was just grateful to have received that award,” she said.
Smith said she was “shocked” after reading a description of the assets of each of the other three candidates who had been awarded PSEA of the quarter for 2012. She said she couldn’t believe she was selected as PSEA of the year.
“It means a lot,” she said. “I’ve been there 39 years. Maybe within the next year or so, I might retire.”
The Kinston native graduated from the Savannah High School. She trained as a nursing assistant at Lenoir Community College and began her nursing career in 1973.
Smith, 64, went back to school to become a licensed practical nurse. After a year and half, she went on to become a registered nurse at Pitt Community College in 1983.
She received oncology nursing certification from the Oncology Nursing Society in 2005, as well as chemotherapy and biotherapy certification.
“We had a lot of encouraging people,” Smith said about her rise in the hospital ranks. “… Somebody just gave me that push when I needed it and I decided I would just try it.”
While Smith has worked in a number of different units, she currently works in the oncology unit where she is the only nurse with oncology certification. To receive that certification, a nurse goes through a “grueling” test in Raleigh, said Carletta Carlyle, the nurse manager who nominated Smith.
“It is a very intense test,” Carlyle said.
She said she nominated Smith because of her 39 years of excellence.
“She’s very dedicated, very patient-centered, passionate,” Carlyle said about Smith. “… A better person could not have won it than her.”
The reasons for her being nominated are numerous. Carlyle listed compassion, quality care, interpersonal skills, good communication skills and cross-functional skills as a few.
“She holds herself accountable to high ethical standards and legal requirements,” she said, “setting an example for other staff.”
Smith is known to nurture new nurses, and even comes in on her time off to help them administer chemotherapy drugs — until they become comfortable with it.
“If someone calls,” Smith said, “I will go in.”
Carlyle considers Smith a “blessing to her patients, her unit and Lenoir Memorial.”
“I do my job every day,” Smith said, “and I try to do the best I can do.”
Smith resides with her husband Melvin and the couple has two grown children, Daphne and David. She attends Postoak Free Will Baptist Church where she assists with health fairs and the Women’s Fellowship Committee.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.