By Frank Couch
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Associate Professor and Director of Educationally Focused Partnerships Rebecca S. Miltner, PhD, RN, CNL, NEA-BC, has been named the School’s second holder of the Donna Brown Banton Endowed Professorship in Nursing.
“We are fortunate to have an individual with Dr. Miltner’s superior experience and exceptional abilities who is so matched to the intension of the Donna Brown Banton Endowed Professorship in Nursing,” said UAB School of Nursing Dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair in Nursing Doreen C. Harper, PhD, RN, FAAN.
In this role, Miltner work with the UAB Nursing Partnership, a national award winning academic-practice partnership that is designed to reshape the scope and impact of nursing at UAB Hospital. Miltner will have two primary focuses—an evaluation of the UAB RN Residency Program, which helps newly educated RNs transition to professional practice, and an improvement project involving medication administration processes.
“I have focused on improving quality and safety in acute care nursing during my career in nursing, which spans four decades,” said Miltner. “I worked as a staff nurse for 10 years and have a great appreciation for front line nurses who have proven to be real heroes during this pandemic. Their work is difficult, and treatments for patients are becoming more demanding. I look forward helping improve processes through the UAB Nursing Partnership.”
The Donna Brown Banton Endowed Professorship in Nursing was established by Julian Banton and his daughters, Courtney Banton Alford and Stephanie Banton Troutman, to honor their late wife and mother, Donna Brown Banton, whose legacy focused on continued training and education of nurses at the UAB School of Nursing. It aims to support a faculty member who will facilitate and continuously improve the RN residency program at UAB Hospital, as Miltner will do.
“This is a great opportunity to give back to the profession and stay connected to the clinical practice that established and has guided my career,” Miltner said.
Miltner has extensive clinical leadership and experience in military, private and Veteran Affairs acute care settings as well as experience in nursing education in both academic and organizational settings. She is a leader among faculty in the VA Quality Scholars Program, as a Quality and Safety Education Nurses (QSEN) Institute Board Member and co-leader of the Deep South QSEN Regional Collaborative at UAB, an initiative to train nurse educators, practicing nurses and nurse leaders on the importance of instilling quality and safety values within the nursing and healthcare workforce.
Miltner also is a Nurse Scientist at the Birmingham VA Medical Center, and her research interests are focused on improvement and implementation science with a focus on the quality of nursing care in a variety of health settings.
