Two ECU nurses earn ‘Great 100’ designation
GREENVILLE, N.C. — Two nurses with East Carolina University have earned the “Great 100 Nurses” designation for North Carolina.
Bobbie Lou Price, bariatric program nurse manager for the Department of Surgery at the Brody School of Medicine, and Donna W. Roberson, a clinical instructor at the School of Nursing, have been recognized for their achievements in the field of nursing.
The Great 100 Foundation, a statewide grassroots peer organization, annually recognizes registered nurses who demonstrate excellence in practice and commitment to their profession.
Price also has been appointed chair of the Allied Health Science Section of the American Society of Bariatric Surgery for a two-year term. The American Society of Bariatric Surgery is a non-profit organization that works to advance the art and science of bariatric surgery and to educate medical professionals and the public about bariatric surgery as an option for the treatment of morbid obesity, as well as the associated risks and benefits.
Price earned her bachelor of science in nursing degree from Barton College and has been with ECU for 10 years. As nurse manager for the bariatric surgery program, Price works with morbidly obese patients who come to ECU’s internationally recognized gastric bypass surgery program. Last year, the program’s three surgeons saw more than 500 new patients and performed about 200 surgeries. Roberson has served more than 11 years in the ECU School of Nursing. In addition to teaching nursing students, she also serves on the undergraduate student affairs and cultural diversity committees and mentors new faculty.
She is on hiatus as family nurse practitioner in the ECU Student Health Center while pursuing her doctoral degree in nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship to prepare nursing researchers in the prevention and management of chronic illness. Her work in student health sparked her interest in women’s health research. For her dissertation, Roberson is studying the views of HIV-positive female inmates with adherence to medication therapy.
“My career is a perfect example of just how much a person can do with nursing,” she said. “I’m an educator, an advanced practice nurse, a researcher and ongoing student of the field. What a fabulous way to earn a living.”
Roberson received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing and family nurse practitioner certification from ECU.