The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) will give the Marguerite Rodgers Kinney Award for a Distinguished Career to Donna L. Bertram, RN, MBA, NEA-BC, FAAN. She will receive this Visionary Leadership Award for contributions to AACN's mission and vision at the 2011 National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition, Chicago, April 30-May 5.
Bertram — former vice president and chief nursing officer at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital — recently retired after a 46-year nursing career that spans patient care, leadership, operations, research and education. She joined the hospital's administrative team in 2005 after serving 13 years as chief operating officer/chief nursing officer of Penrose St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs, Colo., where she was vice president of nursing.
A past AACN president, Bertram began her career at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth in 1972, where she served as director of medical-surgical nursing, director of the cardiovascular lab and in-service educator for critical care before her promotion to vice president of nursing in 1984.
A native of Wisconsin and graduate of Milwaukee County School of Nursing, she earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1980, and a master's in business education from the University of Dallas in 1986.
An adjunct faculty member of the University of Texas at Arlington's School of Nursing, she belongs to the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Career accomplishments include the highest recognition given by the American Organization of Nurse Executives, the Organizational Innovation Award for Nurse Executives, in 2009.
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