Sharon “Elizabeth” Werth, photo by Michael Cavazos.

“I chose to be a nurse because I am compassionate and want to help others.”

Sharon “Elizabeth” Werth, MSN, APRN, FNP-C

By Joycelyne Fadojutimi

Sharon “Elizabeth” Werth has so many letters after her name that it is like reading a dictionary. MSN, APRN and FNP-C trail her signature, and she has expertly earned every one of them. She and husband Trent have been a loving couple for twenty-one years, and their children are following magnificent parental examples.

Twenty-year-old Grayson is a sophomore at Wayland Baptist University and plays baseball for the Wayland Pioneers. Nineteen-year-old Halle is matriculating as a freshman at the University of Arkansas at Fayettville. Ainsleigh is fourteen and a freshman in Hallsville High School. Emery is a thirteen-year-old seventh grader in Hallsville Junior High. Mini-Aussie/mini-Dachshund mix named CoCo, and Brittany Spaniel “Chief” round out this happy family. Elizabeth personifies a loving wife and mother.

“I would not be where I am today without my husband’s unconditional love and support,” she says. “We met in August of my last year of nursing school at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches (2001).

She was from Houston. He was from Pittsburg, Texas and from the beginning they knew they were made for each other. Elizabeth graduated in May of 2002 with the first of her credentials–a Bachelor of Nursing. She moved to beautiful East Texas and went to work as a registered nurse on the Cardiac IMC floor of Good Shepherd Medical Center in the summer of 2002. Her own parents set the example that enabled her to get off to such a fast start.

She was still in junior high in the early ’90s when her mother pulled down her own RN degree. Elizabeth dutifully assisted her mom in studying for her NCLEX nursing board exam. Mother absolutely adores her line of work.

“She has always worked hard and loved being a nurse,” says Elizabeth. “Despite many life disadvantages and hard times, we lived through together, she ended up obtaining her master’s degree in nursing around the same time I received mine.”

Mother sustained a traumatic brain injury in March of 2024, but between loads of expert medical care and fervent prayers she has almost fully recovered already. Still, she has not been able to return to nursing, so she continues in the healing of others as a volunteer at Longview Regional Medical Center. Faith is another major aspect in the lives and careers of this mother-daughter team.

“My parents raised my younger sister and me in the Baptist church,” she says. “I have always relied on my Christian faith to get through hard times and to make decisions.”

Along with crediting her beloved husband for her success, she is careful to point to her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the guidance, strength, and ability He provides. Her family now makes Hallsville’s Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church their spiritual home as they move forward via prayer and faith through good times and bad. She feels Her Lord tipped her off to her college home. She was only seventeen when she enrolled at Stephen F. Austin back in August of 1997. She set out down a long, fruitful road to self-improvement.

“In 2017 two good friends and I decided to take on nurse practitioner school together,” she says. “I found out that SFA was starting a brand-new MSN-FNP program, and I knew it was meant to be.”

This university places great emphasis on its nursing program, and as a result the curriculum is very demanding. This did not stop her from excelling in her studies as she graduated in May of 2020 from the school’s first cohort of MSN-FNP students with a sparkling 4.0 GPA. It could not have come at a better time. The COVID epidemic was sweeping the nation.

“I thought as a healthcare provider I could do more to help people who were in my sister’s situation and my family’s. Although I work in primary health, I believe mental health is very important to a patient’s overall health and well-being.”

Sharon “Elizabeth” Werth, MSN, APRN, FNP-C

During her time at Good Shepherd, she and Trent started a family following their 2003 marriage. As a mother she wanted more “normal” working hours, so she went to work for home health. She later took on the position of charge nurse in PACU in the Good Shepherd Surgery Center while finding time to work successfully on her master’s degree.

“I graduated in May 2020, two months into the COVID pandemic, which made it somewhat difficult for nurse practitioners,” she says.

Still, her career in healing was soaring as she took a position as an FNP at Special Health Resources in the Jim Meyer Comprehensive Care Clinic, supervised by Dr. Anita Scribner. It was not an easy role to fill, especially for someone with so little experience as she helped care for a patient population with such dire needs. Longview’s underserved, underprivileged, uninsured, and homeless came to her with an endless list of serious health problems and with few alternatives for treatment. Despite compassionately, competently caring for these hurting people, Elizabeth found time to earn her HIV certification to prepare her yet further for taking care of those suffering from infectious illnesses.

“In April of 2023 I was given the opportunity to work for Regional Clinics under Dr. John Wolcott,” she says. “I worked in our Liberty City location for about eighteen months and have now moved on to our Longview location in the 802 Medical Circle Dr. building with Dr. Kenneth McClure.”

For her and her fellow healthcare providers the learning process never ends as guidelines constantly change, and new medicines and procedures are introduced and evaluated. Even after twenty-three years of nursing in Longview, she is still essentially a student…and loves it. One of her greatest attributes is her attitude.

“I chose to be a nurse because I am compassionate and want to help others,” she says.

As a nurse, Elizabeth saw her younger sister become addicted to opioids and benzodiazepines during the opioid epidemic of the 90s. She started at age fifteen using hydrocodone for a softball injury. Her sister’s struggle with drugs aroused in Elizabeth an abiding interest in learning about addictive chemicals, their effects and how to help those trapped in their usage.

“I thought as a healthcare provider I could do more to help people who were in my sister’s situation and my family’s,” she says. “Although I work in primary health, I believe mental health is very important to a patient’s overall health and well-being.”

She realizes how mental problems can also affect victims physically, and that is a particularly difficult problem for those lacking such resources as money and insurance. In her work in primary care/internal medicine she concentrates on men and women aged eighteen and older suffering from a wide range of disorders.

Her typical day sees her treating patients Monday through Thursday from 8:00 to 5:00, and 8:00 until noon on Fridays. She then picks up her children from their many and assorted school functions and activities, cooks and enjoys supper with her family before watching movies together during the cold months. Spring and summer evenings are dedicated to swimming and other outdoor activities. Still, it is her career that takes up most of her time and effort. The stress and pressure of her calling are more than offset by the warm sense of accomplishment coming from healing others.

“Many people say healthcare is a thankless profession,” she says. “I love it when I see my patients’ cholesterol, A1c, blood pressure or mental health improve because of strategies and/or medications we have implemented and decided on together.”

From the very start of her career, she knew it would not be easy. She describes how it can be “overwhelming,” and points to how healthcare never stops changing, meaning she and her fellow practitioners are forced to never stop learning and can never proceed with their ministrations unless they know every question’s answer.

She stresses that hers is an absolutely essential line of work that branches out in countless directions. For those aiming for a career as a family nurse practitioner she recommends at least two years working as a registered nurse before attending FNP school. She opposes budding nurses from going straight from BSN to MSN with insufficient prior nursing experience. Again, she points to her faith as the guiding light in following her road to success.

“On hard days when I don’t want to go into work I will pray on my drive in,” she says. “I will ask God how I can become a blessing to my co-workers and patients.”

Along with everything else they have on their plates; Elizabeth and her family are hosting a German exchange student. Fifteen-year-old Romy is from Hamburg, Germany and is a sophomore at Hallsville High School. Romy loves her adopted clan and eagerly helps when they serve dinner to the ladies at House of Hope every month through the St. Mary’s Catholic Church Youth Group. For Elizabeth, sharing Texas culture and hospitality is just another of the healing arts.

“Many people say healthcare is a thankless profession. I love it when I see my patients’ cholesterol, A1c, blood pressure or mental health improve because of strategies and/or medications we have implemented and decided on together.”

Sharon “Elizabeth” Werth, MSN, APRN, FNP-C