The annual Rose of Care Award was presented to Sandra Falk, a registered nurse at HealthPark Medical Center, for serving Lee County as an exceptional nurse.
Natalie Fulton, co-chair of the Rose of Care award committee, said there were 15 finalists in the running for the award, which is presented to nurses who go above and beyond what is expected of them.
“It is to honor an outstanding nurse living or working in Lee County,” said Fulton.
Patients, doctors and other members of the community nominate a local nurse for the award each year.
Nominated nurses complete and submit an application about themselves and later, a selection committee, consisting of members of the community and health officials, review each application.
“It takes a lot of work, you have to understand the nomination process, they fill out an application form to give us their particulars and they are personally interviewed by our selection committee,” said Fulton.
Falk will be sent on a missionary trip to Hadassah Hospital in Israel, opened in 1961 by the the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. In 2005 it was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for its equal treatment of all patients regardless of race, religion or ethnicity.
Fulton said the committee received many nominations this year. Furthermore, there were some nominees who never sent in their application to be in the running.
“A lot of people who are nominated don’t send in their final application form,” said Fulton.
The winner was announced Thursday at the Landing’s Helm Club in Fort Myers.
Finalists for the 2009 Rose of Care award were April Frye from HealthPark, Ann Holt from oncology, Gloria Koehler from HealthPark, Honey Lane from Lee Memorial Home Health, Nancy McGovern from the Lee Memorial Board, Itzel Mitchelle of the Gulf Coast Medical Center, Marva Deane-Pharis from Lee Memorial Hospital and Dorothy Taylor from Cape Coral Hospital.