Beverly Overton has spent her life healing and guiding others.
For nearly 50 years, she has been involved in nursing and health care, and was even recognized as Mississippi’s best nurse.
“Anything I’ve accomplished in life has been through the strength of the Lord, God,” said Overton, who is a 20-year member of the Clarksdale Baptist Church where she serves as a substitute Sunday School teacher.
Today, Overton spends her time guiding a program that trains others who may follow the same path that she set out on in the early 1970s.
Overton earned her associate degree in nursing from Mississippi Delta Community College in Moorhead in 1972, went on to earn her baccalaureate of science in nursing from the University of Memphis in 1985 and her master’s of science in nursing from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1993.
During this time, she served as house supervisor and nurse manager of perinatal post-operative services and staff nurse at Northwest Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale from 1972-’86.
She then went to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Booneville. There, she was the director of nursing over 80 full-time employees and was responsible for the total management of the following areas: nursing services, emergency services and surgery.
She then returned to the Clarksdale facility and, from 1988-’91, she was the director of hospital education where she implemented and coordinated all required JACHO in-service functions and provided education for staff-based personnel on assessed needs, new equipment and new clinical.
Soon after, Overton was promoted to the position of assistant director of nursing, where she monitored all staffing for the nursing units and was the director of nursing performance improvement throughout the Clarksdale hospital.
From 1993 until January of 2000, Overton served as the Clarksdale hospital’s associate executive director of patient care, directing nine departments with staff totaling 280 full-time employees, including nursing units, surgery, employee health and hospital infection control, extended care, perinatal services, emergency services, hospital performance improvement and pharmacy. Under her watch, the medical center maintained less than 2.95 full-time employees per occupied bed, which included non-productive hours. Patient satisfaction was maintained at a minimum of 95 percent during this period.
In 2000, Overton made a career change, signing on with Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville, and was assigned to the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, where she served as the administrator of health services. She opened the Health Services Department for a 1,000-bed medium security prison and an 80-bed county jail and was responsible for obtaining licensure for the laboratory and the state license for the radiology equipment, setting up the pharmacy and medical records.
She supervised and trained 17 full-time employees and was responsible for all contract staff in the health science department. She went on to manage the medical departments of nine prison/jail facilities -- six in Texas, one in Louisiana and two in Mississippi.
“CCA was good to me,” she said while reflecting on her experience with the Correction Corporation of America. “It was a great experience serving as a liaison between CCA and the University of Texas Medical Branch at seven facilities in Texas.
“But, I felt it was time to move to Clarksdale and help my parents, Bobby and Mary Overton, as they were elderly and beginning to have health problems.”
Dr. Vivien Presley, president of Coahoma Community College, afforded her the opportunity to come to CCC in 2010 as the assistant vice president of health sciences and director of the college’s practical nursing program.
“Dr. Presley was always very nice to me, as was Jerome Shaw of the college staff,” Overton said. “I am beginning my tenth year here now and I am very happy here.”
Overton overseee the college’s practical nursing program and the nursing assistant program.
She is also proud of the fact that the CCC health sciences program has had students who have gone on to achieve higher degrees and earn acclaim on higher levels.
All nursing programs at CCC are nationally accredited, except the practical nursing program and it is state accredited.
Furthermore, Overton says the polysomography program at CCC is the only program of its kind in Mississippi that is nationally accredited.
Overton has 30 students currently enrolled in the LPN-RN program and another 30 in the practical nursing program at CCC.
She says the college has EMT classes on Saturdays as well as a paramedic program.
“We care about our students,” she said. “Eighty to ninety percent of our practical nursing students are passing, while 90 percent of our RN students are passing. We work with them closely.”
She said most of the students come from the Delta, mostly the South Delta, although there are some from Tunica County.
“We want every one of our students to graduate and we have a hands-on approach and work closely with them to make sure they do,” Overton said.
There are 16 instructors in the health sciences program.
“Four members of our health sciences faculty have doctor’s degrees and we are proud of that, too,” she said.
With 46 years of nursing experience and being recognized as the Mississippi Nurse of the Year in 1982, Overton has the Coahoma Community College health science program well in hand and headed for greater heights.
