"Tisha" Benson named 2018 Nurse of the Year

At a Nov. 3 dinner at the Hilton in Anchorage, Letitia "Tisha" Benson was named 2018's March of Dimes Nurse of the Year. She received the award of excellence for public health and ambulatory care. Benson said that the nurse of the year award is given to nurses in all 50 states by March of Dimes, a nonprofit that works to improve health for mothers and babies. According to her, there were 109 nominations for the award in Alaska, and the top 65 were invited to the Hilton dinner. Simply being nominated was a great honor, she said, let alone being chosen as the winner.

"It was kind of like the Grammy Awards," she said. "Nobody knew who the winner was until they opened the card."

Benson is the daughter of Randy and Carol Churchill. She grew up in Wrangell, and said that she has always had an interest in all things medical. She graduated from Wrangell High School in 2000, and has continually pursued an education in her desired field ever since. She received an associate's RN degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage, as well as a bachelor's degree in nursing. Most recently, she has received an MBA from Alaska Pacific University, with a concentration in Health Service Administration.

For the past eight years, Benson has worked at Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage. She started as an intern, she said, and is now a senior RN case manager. As case manager, she works to coordinate care for patients involving multiple specialties. She is also the primary point of contact between people and their medical team, answering questions and helping provide education, triage, follow up, and several other kinds of medical care. She is also a mentor to six other nurses.

"I wear a lot of hats," she said with a laugh. "I am a lot like the gatekeeper."

On top of all this, Benson is an active member of the Alaska Native/American Indian group at her clinic. She works with the Recruitment and Retention of Alaska Native Nurses to try and expand the number of Alaska Natives in nursing, as well as in leadership positions of the medical field. Recently she also represented Alaska in the United States Breastfeeding Committee, where she travelled to Washington D.C. to discuss workplace accommodations for lactating mothers with Representative Don Young and Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Benson had nothing but praise for Southcentral Foundation and the people she worked with. She also commented on how honored she was to have been nominated for the nurse of the year award. Nursing is her passion, and she said that she would also love to speak with students at Wrangell High School about her career someday.