Christine Hober, chair of nursing, was honored as the Medical/Surgical Nurse of the Year in the Greater Kansas Chapter of the March of Dimes award ceremony in Kansas City at their annual event last Friday.
The nomination process begins with open nominations from Kansas and the Kansas City Area, according to Karly Kappelman, State Director of Special Events at the March of Dimes. Following their nomination, nominees complete an application form that is later reviewed and scored by a steering committee made up of nurses, nursing executives, and nursing officers from around the state. Locally, Terry Siek, Chief Nursing Officer at Hays Medical Center is on that committee.
Nominations come from 56 facilities within Kansas and the K.C. metro area with 445 nominations in 19 categories coming in this year.
Out of each category 5 nominees are selected to be finalists, with all finalists being invited to the award ceremony. This year one category ended in a tie meaning 20 winners were announced at the ceremony according to Kappelman.
Mirta Martin, Fort Hays State University president, shared her excitement with the win on Twitter Thursday saying, “Congratulations to Christine Hober! She’s the Nurse of the Year! Destination of choice- People of Excellence! Hurray.”
Former students of Hober also shared in the acknowledgment.
“Christine has helped influence my nursing career through her struggles, I am glad she was able to help people through her tough times and I hope people can aspire to have the same strengths as she has developed,” said Amber Phenicie, recent FHSU nursing graduate, who works as a nurse at an area hospital.